By Sam Laskaris
Writer
Lindsay Monture
TORONTO – She’s back.
Six Nations’ Lindsay Monture once again finds herself working for one of the world’s most prestigious Indigenous film festivals.
Monture has been named as the festival director for the Toronto-based imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. She began her new position last Monday (May 1).
“The position I’m in now is really my dream job,” said Monture, who is 34.
For Monture, this is actually the third time she has worked for imagineNATIVE.
She started off as a programming co-ordinator for the festival back in May of 2013.
After seven months in that position she moved into a job focusing on events and outreach as well as being a tour co-ordinator for the festival.
And then after six months she switched again into a programming and industry co-ordinator position.
After leaving the festival and working in various other positions, Monture returned to imagineNATIVE for a three-month stint as tour co-ordinator in 2017.
“It means so much to me,” Monture said of her newest gig with the festival. “The first time around imagineNATIVE was such a transformational experience for me. It basically put me on course for the rest of my career.”
Monture had graduated from Toronto’s York University with a degree in film, cinema and video studies in 2012.
She’s worked for various Indigenous-led companies in various industries since then. Before accepting her latest imagineNATIVE job, she had worked for almost three years as the operations manager for Indigenous Climate Action, an organization whose mission is uplift Indigenous voices, sovereignty, and stewardship of the lands and waters for future generations.
As festival director now for imagineNATIVE, Monture’s responsibilities will include overseeing the programming team, which features a programming manager, programming co-ordinator as well as the digital and interactive team.
She will also be in charge of selecting festival programmers and curators and juries for award selections.
For the immediate future Monture will be able to work at her festival job remotely, from her Brantford home.
When needed she will venture into Toronto to the festival office. And she anticipates she’ll be required to head to Toronto with more frequency as the festival dates approach.
This year’s in-person imagineNATIVE festival will run Oct. 17-22. The festival will then switch to online only screenings, which will be presented from Oct. 23-29.
Monture becomes the first festival director for imagineNATIVE.
“This position kind of wasn’t really around before,” she said, adding many of her current duties would have been handled by the festival’s artistic director.
Monture said festival reps have started to pre-screen some of the films that have been sent to the festival.
“And we’re still accepting submissions,” she said.
Submissions for this year’s festival are due at midnight on May 19. This year marks the 24th annual imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.
The festival has become the world’s largest Indigenous festival showcasing film, video, audio, and digital and interactive media made by Indigenous screen-content creators.
