Michelle Latimer

Michelle Latimer is an Aboriginal Canadian actress, director and filmmaker. She is perhaps best known for her role as Trish Simkin on Paradise Falls, shown nationally in Canada on Showcase Television (2001–2004).

Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013), and the Viceland series, Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the latter won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.

Latimer was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario with Métis/Algonquin descent. She later studied theatre at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

Her largest role so far is as goth teen Trish Simpkin in Paradise Falls. Aside from Paradise Falls, Latimer has had limited roles in other television productions. In 2004, she had two guest appearances on the low budget Canadian series Train 48. She also had a minor appearance in the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

After Paradise Falls, she returned to the stage, starring in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, written by Brad Fraser. She performed the play in 2004 at Crow's Theatre in Toronto and she played Benita, a psychic prostitute. Like Paradise Falls, the play also had some controversy for its open depiction of sexuality.

Latimer later produced and directed an animated film titled Choke, which was funded by bravoFACT and screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was one of five animated shorts nominated for a Genie Award in 2011.

Since the early 2010s, Latimer has dedicated her time to documentary filmmaking. In 2013, she made her feature film directorial debut Alias, which "follows aspiring rappers trying to escape the gangster life." The film received positive reviews, was nominated for several awards, including for a Canadian Screen Award, and screened at the Hot Docs Film Festival. Also in 2013, she was chosen as one of Playback's 10 To Watch.

Latimer's Viceland documentary series, titled Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, premiered at the Special Events section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The series won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018. While accepting the award, Latimer delivered what was described by CBC News as "one of the night's most passionate speeches", in which she celebrated Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock.

Other work

Latimer also works as a film curator; she is a programmer for the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, the Hot Docs Film Festival and is a programming advisor for Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque and the Regent Park Film Festival.