Cara Mumford Films

Cara Mumford Biography

Métis filmmaker Cara Mumford initially rebelled against her theatrical upbringing by studying veterinary medicine. But she gradually made her way back to the arts... first by researching, writing and editing non-fiction works, then presenting her poetry at public readings and finally transitioning into film when she signed up for her first screenwriting workshop in 2006.

After that initial screenwriting workshop, Mumford attended the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers' (CSIF) 16mm Film School in 2006 and was selected for herland's IN:Camera Film Production Workshop, a juried 10-day intensive workshop for emerging women filmmakers, in February 2007. Multiple workshops followed through Calgary's artist run centres (CSIF, EMMEDIA and Quickdraw Animation Society), as well as the National Film Board of Canada.

Mumford's first independent short film was a Super 8 vignette entitled "Coda in G Minor," inspired by the work of Maya Deren and Winnipeg cult filmmaker Deco Dawson. This film premiered at the $100 Film Festival in Calgary, Alberta, screened at the Fear No Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah and was subsequently accepted for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Ontario in November 2008. That same year, Mumford successfully submitted the synopsis for her first feature film concept, "Endangered Hero," to imagineNATIVE's Show Me the Drama! Pitch Workshop, a highly coveted workshop in preparation for a competitive industry pitch during the film festival.

After "Coda in G Minor," which still gets programmed at Super 8 film festivals to this day, Mumford went on to create the short films "echoes" and "December 6," screening at imagineNATIVE in 2009 and 2010 respectively. "echoes," combining poetry, dance, animation, found footage and photographs, was written, directed, produced and edited by Mumford; it won Best Underground Film at the chashama Film Festival in New York City in 2009.

"December 6," featuring spoken word artist Evalyn Parry and showcasing 14 diverse dancers, recalls the events of the Montreal Massacre at L’École Polytechnique, making a bold statement for the abolishment of violence against women; it was nominated for Best Music Video by the Alberta Media Production Industries Association in 2011. Mumford directed, co-produced and edited “December 6,” which screened in Australia on International Women's Day at the World of Women Film Festival and in Los Angeles at the Artivist Film Festival in August 2011. It will have it's New York debut on Remembrance Day (November 11, 2011) at the chashama Film Festival.

In addition to the success of these films, Mumford's short screenplay, "Ask Alice," won Best Short Script at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival in 2011 and was recently selected for a screenplay reading by LIFT Out Loud, a program of the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto.

While working on these projects, Mumford continued to develop her feature film concept, "Endangered Hero," through an Aboriginal Emerging Writer's Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2009 and Telefilm Canada's Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program: Treatment to First Draft in 2010-2011. That first draft placed in the top 15% of the 2011 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition. While in no way autobiographical in its story, the screenplay contains many elements of Mumford's own life and has come to reflect her personal journey of rediscovering her Métis identity, not just as a direct descendant of resistance fighters who fought alongside Louis Riel in 1885 but as a member of a people renowned for their horses and horsemanship.

Mumford has recently relocated to the Toronto area, continuing her professional development through Trinity Square Video and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. Her latest project, "Paper Dove," is a music video she filmed and directed for Toronto-based singer/songwriter Jeanette Lee; it premiered at imagineNATIVE in October 2011.