DRIFF Alumni Spotlight: Eva Thomas
Since 2017, DRIFF has cultivated a space for audiences to engage with diverse filmmakers from the Durham Region, across Canada, and around the globe. Our Alumni Spotlight series highlights the impacts and achievements of past and present DRIFF filmmakers working in media arts today.
Eva Thomas is a Canadian, writer, producer, director and story editor of Indigenous descent. She is a member of the Walpole Island First Nation and has dual citizenship in the US and Canada. Among her popular works are ‘Redlights’, ‘Night Raiders’, Aberdeen, and ‘Still Standing’. Her first short film ‘Redlights’ which she directed, produced, and wrote made its debut at TIFF ‘23 and was nominated for the IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film in 2023. It was a winner of the Short Film Impact Award in 2024 at GEMFest. The film was inspired by the Starlight Tours in Saskatoon and tells a story of two Indigenous women, one of whom gets followed by the police car into the freezing countryside.
As someone of Indigenous descent herself, Thomas does an amazing job at showcasing the realities of Indigenous communities in Canada and sharing their stories with others. Her films are not only deeply personal and honest, but also informative and educational. Thomas has a way of showing the lives of Indigenous communities in Canada in such a way that makes a viewer empathize and feel close to her characters. In 2021, Thomas was one of the five Indigenous women who participated in the Women in View’s Five in Focus: Indigenous program.
After getting her degree in Communications and Broadcasting, Thomas also studied acting but decided to dedicate herself to story editing and scriptwriting. In 2023, Thomas co-directed and co-wrote her first feature film, Aberdeen, which was screened at TIFF ‘24. She was working on a project alongside her old friend, Ryan Cooper. The film shows an Indigenous woman who moves to Winnipeg and struggles to adjust to big-city life.
We met with Eva Thomas to learn more about her past and new projects and her journey as an Indigenous storyteller and filmmaker.
First off, we’d like to know what you have been up to since your film ‘Redlights’ was shown at DRIFF last year.
-Well, it premiered at TIFF last year. It was the first scripted project that I had done. I had directed a few docuseries for television, ‘Still Standing’ for CBC. So ‘Redlights’ premiered at TIFF, and it also screened at DRIFF. But since then, it has screened at over twenty-five film festivals all over the world. I was nominated for the DGC Best Short Film Award. Sadly, I didn't win, but it was nice to be nominated. I also co-wrote and co-directed a feature last October called Aberdeen which premiered at TIFF. I also was in the writing room for Acting Good, a half-hour comedy series for CTV. And I got to write an episode and a half, and then they allowed me to direct one of the episodes which I'm really excited about. And I guess another sort of landmark this year is I won a CSA, a Canadian Screen Award, in May for one of my episodes of ‘Still Standing’.
Your feature directorial debut, ‘Aberdeen’, will be screened at TIFF this year. What was your driving force behind making this movie?
Sure, great question. Aberdeen is a project that I co-wrote and co-directed with a Winnipeg-based filmmaker, Ryan Cooper. Ryan Cooper and I had met at Banff in 2018 as a part of the Diversity of Voices program, and we came back in 2019 and 2020, and then I think he came back with Diversity of Voices of 4th year, and I came back with the SPARK Women in the Business of Media program. So, we would see each other every year at Banff, and we sort of developed a friendship and became colleagues and supported each other. And one of the things that I did for a handful of years and still do is story editing. I work with writers on the scripts to help them elevate the script and get on the road to production. And he mentioned that he had the script called Aberdeen and asked if I would work on it with him. So, he sent it over, and then I worked with it and worked with him on the story, and then he asked me to direct it, and I said, “No, it's your film. It's your story, but I will co-direct it with you”, to make sure that he maintains ownership of the story and make sure that it was what he wanted it to be.
My driving force as a co-director was to use my talents and skills as a writer and director to help a friend and colleague manifest their vision of a story that was really important to them. It's based on their life experiences and their family and, really, I was just there to help manifest the vision. But I'll also add that Aberdeen is about an Indigenous woman struggling in Winnipeg, on the fringes - houseless, homeless. And there's a pretty huge Indigenous population, and a huge homeless population in Winnipeg. And for me, I guess, when I was thinking about the message, I was trying to create empathy for a character like Aberdeen, and I just kept coming back to that. And so, how can I create this sense of empathy, so that a viewer can watch that film and understand maybe, “oh, she's been through a lot”, or “her life hasn't been easy”, or come to understand and see her humanity? So, empathy was like a driving force.
The film ‘Redlights’ is a powerful film that has received a short film impact award this year from GEMFest. How has this film impacted your career?
It's been pretty remarkable. I always imagined ‘Redlights’ to be a short-to- feature project, that I would make the short film, and then, hopefully, be successful, and then I could go on to direct the feature. And I'm happy to report that I received money from the Indigenous Screen Office and Telefilm, so I'll be directing that feature in the fall. So certainly, it has elevated my directing career. And because Redlights is screened at so many film festivals a lot of people have seen my work. So, I get messages like, “I saw your film on the plane, or “I saw the film at this film festival”. It also was one of the Vimeo Staff Picks. So, even an international audience is seeing my work. Redlights is the first short film for a scripted project that I made. And now I've already co-directed a feature, and going on to direct a feature, so certainly it has allowed people to take me seriously and allowed me to have more experiences as a director.
Do you have any advice for aspiring filmmakers out there?
Yes, I think I do. Making a movie is hard; it's really hard. It takes your whole life energy to write a script, and to rewrite it so many times, you know, 20-30 times or more. To make the thing is hard, to raise the money is hard. Then you get the thing made and you have to have the energy to keep going in post. So, you really want to pick projects that you're passionate about because it's going to be with you for a while, and then, even when you feel like you're done with it, and you're onto your next project people still want to ask you about it. And they still want to screen your film from a year ago. It's great, but you really do have to have a passion for the story that you're telling. And then I always think it’s helpful to work with people that you like and respect because you'll be working closely together with those people. So, pick your team wisely and I think work begets work. So, you make something and then make something else, and then make something else, and then make something else. So, you have to have passion for it, pick a great team, and then I think you just learn by doing it again and again.
What's one underrated film that you think everyone should see?
Oh, I didn't know you would ask me this kind of question (laughing). Well, I wouldn't say that it's underrated but I'm lucky to have two films at TIFF this year, so I would say, go out, see my movies! But I have a film that I produced. I was an executive producer on Seeds that's premiered at TIFF which I think is pretty cool, too. So, they're not underrated, they're not rated yet. So, I am just promoting my own work and the work of my friends. Go see Aberdeen, go see Seeds. They’re different, but they're new projects to hit the market, and I'm hoping people get to see them. Because you can make something, but really, at the end of the day you make something because you want people to see the work.
What's one thing you remember about the last time you attended DRIFF?
Well, I was unable to attend last year because I was shooting Aberdeen. So, I was on set when the film festival was on. But I will say that it was very cool to follow the festival on social media. So, even though I was in Winnipeg, I could follow the different posts, and then they would tag me on stuff which I thought was nice, and I had friends who also had films that screened there. So, I could feel connected to a festival even though I wasn't able to be there in person because I was on set.
Thank you, Eva Thomas, for sharing generously throughout this conversation.
Aberdeen and Seeds will both be screening at Windsor International Film Festival this year. Additionally, Aberdeen will screen at Forest City Film Festival.
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Alina Mitrofanova is a Creative Writing and English student from Toronto with a passion for film and literature.
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