Hello. I’m Shane Belcourt.
My family and I are the descendants of the Cree (nehiyawewin)-speaking Métis people of mânitow sâkahikanihk, Plains Cree for ‘god’s lake’, in English known as Lac Ste. Anne.
Lac Ste Anne, Alberta, is a known and recognized Métis community that is part of the broader Métis Nation. My grandparents are Matilda L’Hirondelle and Emile Belcourt. My dad is Tony Belcourt. Although I wasn’t raised there and never lived there, this is where they were born and raised, and the community my ancestors are from. I grew up in Ottawa, where my father worked on the national and international stage for Indigenous rights. I moved to Toronto when I was 20, to pursue a career in film and television.
I’m going to write about myself in the 3rd person now …
Shane Belcourt is a two-time CSA-nominated Director, with award-winning narrative and documentary works in both film and TV. His debut feature film TKARONTO, had a theatrical release, was sold to SuperChannel and Air Canada, and was showcased in both the TIFF Indigenous Cinema Retrospective and the UCLA Film & Television Archive traveling exhibition, “Through Indian Eyes: Native American Cinema”. Shane also directed CHANIE WENJACK which Walrus Magazine noted as “the Heritage Minute Canada needs to see”. His most recent feature film, RED ROVER, premiered at the Whistler Film Festival, opened the Canadian Film Festival and was released in March 2020 to glowing reviews.
On the documentary side of things, Shane directed KAHA:WI, which features dancer and choreographer Santee Smith. It premiered at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, aired on APTN and CBC Docs, and won a CSC Award for Best Cinematography in 2016, along with a CSA Best Director nomination. Shane co-directed (with Lisa Jackson) the CBC one-hour INDICTMENT: THE CRIMES OF SHELLY CHARTIER which won Best Doc at imagineNATIVE. In the Fall of 2020, AMPLIFY, aired on APTN, which Shane created and showran. He was a Consulting Producer (writing room story editor) on CBC”s new drama series, THE TRICKSTER.
Currently, Shane is in production on the feature documentary, BEAUTIFUL SCARS, on internationally acclaimed songwriter Tom Wilson. He is also writing a feature narrative based around a family tale entitled DUMBBELL, which received development funding from Telefilm Canada.
Shane is an alumna of the TIFF Talent Lab and NSI’s Totally Television programs, a member of the DGC, and is represented by Carl Liberman at The Characters Talent Agency.