Michelle St. John

Michelle St. John

Birth : 1967-08-26, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

History

Michelle St. John is a Canadian actress, singer, producer and director and a member of the Wampanoag Nation in the northeastern United States. She has been involved in creative projects in theatre, film, television and music since the 1980s. Her directorial debut, Colonization Road, is a 2016 feature-length documentary that premiered at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Profile

Michelle St. John

Movies

Red Rover
Associate Producer
After feeling he has nothing left to live for on earth, a lonely geologist tries to qualify for a one-way mission to Mars with the help of an offbeat musician who is just as lost as he is.
Colonization Road
Director
In towns throughout Ontario, there are startling reminders of the colonization of Indigenous territories and the displacement of First Nations people. Anishinaabe comedian and activist Ryan McMahon takes us to his hometown of Fort Frances and down its main drag, which is called Colonization Road. Similar streets have similar names in towns and cities across the province, direct reminders of the Public Lands Act of 1853 and its severe impact on First Nations, their treaties and their land in the name of “Canadian settlement.” On his journey through Ontario, McMahon explores the history of these roads, meets with settlers in solidarity and raises significant questions about “reconciliation” and what it means to “decolonize.”
Apikiwiyak
Producer
Violence against Indigenous woman is something we’d all like to sweep under the rug … both in mainstream Canadian society and within Indigenous families ourselves. It’s occurred for hundreds of years and is now ever present, and it is brutal and disgusting. Maria Campbell, an acclaimed Metis author from Saskatchewan, knows much about these sad realities in our communities. In this work, Maria sets out to hold a mirror out for Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people to peer into the never-ending legacy of colonial violence. In collaboration Shane Belcourt, the video is a series of heartbreaking vignettes, all wrapped around the imagery of a man in ceremony looking for hope and calling for the ancestors to help us all get back on the good road home.
Rez Carz
(voice)
Abandoned cars rest silently in fields for decades, still holding secret conversations within their bodies.
The Business of Fancydancing
Agnes Roth
Seymour Polatkin is a successful, gay Indian poet from Spokane who confronts his past when he returns to his childhood home on the reservation to attend the funeral of a dear friend.
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
Nakoma (voice) (uncredited)
When news of John Smith's death reaches America, Pocahontas is devastated. She sets off to London with John Rolfe, to meet with the King of England on a diplomatic mission: to create peace and respect between the two great lands. However, Governor Ratcliffe is still around; he wants to return to Jamestown and take over. He will stop at nothing to discredit the young princess.
Smoke Signals
Velma
Young Native American man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family, and Victor hasn't seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains.
Coyote Summer
Rachel
Teenage Callie has a wild streak. When her mother goes to London on business, she sends Callie to her sister's ranch for a dose of hard work and responsibility. Callie is sullen, at first, naturally, but perks up at the sight of a beautiful but wild black horse. When she overhears of the horse's destruction, due to his inability to be tamed, she arranges to steal the horse with a fellow ranch hand named Rafe. In hiding, the two begin to calm the horse and start his training. It works. But, will their hideaway be discovered?
Pocahontas
Nakoma (voice)
Pocahontas, daughter of a Native American tribe chief, falls in love with an English soldier as colonists invade 17th century Virginia.
Geronimo
The story of the greatest Native American warrior who, together with the rest of his Apache tribesmen, defied American and Mexican Armies in 1867. Finally caught and sent to a reservation camp, he eluded a military force of 5000 for 18 months before finally surrendering to the government.
Spirit Rider
Camilla St. Claire
Jesse Threebears is a troubled Native-American teen who has been tossed from one foster home to the next since his mother died when he was an infant. Finally, he is taken in by his grandfather who, after a ten year stint in prison, is living on the reservation. With the help of his grandfather and several others who live on the reservation, Jesse begins to learn about his heritage and how to come to terms with his troubled life.
Liar, Liar: Between Father and Daughter
Janice Wilson
The true story of an eleven year old girl who has a reputation for telling tall tales. So when she accuses her father of molesting her, will anybody believe her story?
Lost in the Barrens II: The Curse of the Viking Grave
Angeline
An archaeological expedition journeys to Manitoba, Canada, in search of a legendary crucifix supposedly buried in an ancient Viking grave.
Where the Spirit Lives
Komi / Amelia
In 1937, a young First Nations (Canadian native) girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations children to abandon their culture in order to be assimilated into white Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment. Only one sympathetic white teacher who is more and more repelled by this bigotry offers her any help from among the staff. That, with her force of will, Ashtecome (forced to take the name Amelia) is determined to hold on to her identity and that of her siblings, who were also abducted.
9B
Emma Kostynuik
The story of a young idealistic teacher and his struggle with a class of difficult students in a northern British Columbia school.