Gail Maurice
Acting
Biography
Gail Maurice is a fluent Cree/Michif speaking actor and an award-winning filmmaker. She created her own company Assini Productions to tell stories that highlight strong Indigenous female leads. She translates and speaks her language whenever she can on the big and little screen. She translated and played the role of Ida, in Night Raiders. She translated/co-wrote and played the role of Meetos, in Quebexit and won Best Screenplay at the Whistler Film Festival 2020.
Place of Birth: Saskatchewan, Canada
Known For
Aberdeen
An idyllic childhood with her mooshum and kookum, or grandparents, in her community of Peguis First Nation dissipates as Aberdeen’s hard-partying and absentee parents distances her from that haven. Now an adult, sleeping on public benches, Winnipeg-based Aberdeen is in survival mode. The last remaining stable parts of her life begin slipping away — her reliable brother Boyd is ill and gives up Aberdeen’s grandkids to the foster care system. Then she loses her ID.
Outlander
The story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, a passionate affair is ignited that tears Claire's heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
Four Faces of the Moon
Follow the animated journey of an Indigenous photographer as she travels through time. The oral and written history of her family reveals the story — we witness the impact and legacy of the railways, the slaughter of the buffalo and colonial land policies.
Falls Around Her
A world-famous Anishinaabe musician returns to the reserve to rest and recharge — only to discover that fame (and the outside world) are not easily left behind.
Don't Even
Follow two best friends in late '90s Winnipeg as they face uncertain futures after high school.
Cardinal
Detective John Cardinal attempts to uncover the mystery of what happened to the missing 13-year-old girl whose body is discovered in the shaft-head of an abandoned mine. At the same time, he comes under investigation by his new partner, Lise Delorme, a tough investigator in her own right.
Bones of Crows
Cree matriarch Aline Spears survives a childhood in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse. She uses her uncanny ability to understand and translate codes into working for a special division of the Canadian Air Force as a Cree code talker in World War II. The story unfolds over 100 years with a cumulative force that propels us into the future.
Diggstown
Follow Marcie Diggs, a star corporate lawyer who reconsiders her priorities after her beloved aunt commits suicide following a malicious prosecution.
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics dives deeply into the innate contrast between the Seven Deadly Sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Envy) and the Seven Sacred Teachings (Love, Respect, Wisdom, Courage, Truth, Honesty and Humility), as embodied in the life of a precocious Métis baby. Brought to life by Terril Calder’s darkly beautiful stop-motion animation, her inner turmoil of abuse is laid bare with unflinching honesty. Convinced she’s soiled and destined for Hell, Baby Girl receives teachings that fill her with strength and pride, and affirm a path towards healing. Calder’s tour-de-force unearths a hauntingly familiar yet hopeful world that illuminates the bias of colonial systems.
Wakening
In the near future, the environment has been destroyed and society suffocates under a brutal military occupation. A lone Cree wanderer Wesakechak searches an urban war zone to find the ancient and dangerous Weetigo to help fight against the occupiers.
Filmography
as Leonore
as Aberdeen
as Joann Paynter
as Older Taylor Whallach
as Nancy
as Ida
as Meetos
as Annabelle Bearclaw
as Annabel Draper
as Inez
as Dorothy Pine
as Narrator (Michif/Cree)
as Tsotehweh
as Nancy
as Skye Nighthawk
as Johnny Greyeyes
as Nowakich
as Technician
as Annie Hanson