08/30/2020
Bios for Olly & Charlene are listed below! All photos were done by yours truly. 😌
(Olly King - Oliver Darrius Merrick King)
Growing up in the First Nations community of James Smith and born Kenneth C. Burns, Oliver or Olly, dreamed of breaking out of his reserve and finding his place in the world. Initially creating YouTube videos, Olly decided to step away from the limelight and start writing. Training to become a filmmaker in 2014, ever since, Olly has been creating and supporting artists from the local indigenous community in Winnipeg. Writing RISER, a television series based on his life, and the project ‘FATF*CK’, which is an extension of his experiences. Olly has always had a pension of blending reality with fiction in a meta performance art fashion. Olly has produced the 48-Hour-Film Challenge project 'No Worms in the Office' and the short film 'Sleeping Heart'.
(Charlene Moore - Charlene Moore)
Charlene works as a producer, writer, director, and sound recordist in the film and television industry. She has completed two undergraduate degrees at the University of Winnipeg in Film and Indigenous Studies as well as the National Screen Institute's New Voices program. She is a member of York Factory First Nation and grew up in the heart of Winnipeg: downtown. She is passionate about storytelling and highlighting Canadian issues that affect Indigenous Peoples. As a Cree, Saulteaux, and Welsh woman, Charlene creates films that focus on identity, connection, and relationships. She pushes her films to challenge stereotypes, xenophobia, oppression and objectification. Her work reflects her passion for Indigenous representation and creating a positive and hopeful influence for Indigenous youth. She is highly involved in the Indigenous film community in Winnpeg where she is a board member of the Indigenous Filmmakers Association and a co-organizer of the annual Indigenous Film Summit. Recently Charlene completed her 20-minute Bell MTS documentary “Moccasin Stories” which has played internationally. Currently, Charlene is working on her Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance and is a participant of the IndigiDocs program through the National Screen Institute where she is in post-production on “When the Children Left” a 10-minute documentary.
She believes that the story-teller in a film has full control and final say in creative manners. This informs her style of producing, where she does help with creative ideas but she does not dictate or have final say on creative decisions. Her role as producer is to help the storyteller create their vision and ensure the right tools and resources are there to achieve it. Charlene thus primarily makes decisions on budget limitation and changes based on the artists story.
