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Caroline Monnet is a filmmaker who currently resides and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Most recently, she has completed Warchild an experimental documentary about a young man’s journey from Northern Manitoba to the city as he struggles between past and present to find his place in society.

Here are some interesting facts about Caroline that you may or may not have known!

Culture has always been an interest for Caroline. When she was little, she wanted to be a food critic who traveled the world, because she believes food is an important part of culture.

She is quite the globetrotter. Caroline has lived in different parts of Canada, Europe and Latin America. She grew up between the Celtic coasts of France and the Algonquin territory of Outaouais, QC.  But for the past four years she’s called Winnipeg home!

Caroline is trilingual! She speaks French, English and Spanish fluently.

She is very learned! Caroline has a B.A in Communication and Sociology from the University of Ottawa and the University of Granada, Spain.

Even though she’s so young, Caroline wasn’t always a filmmaker. She started as a journalist for the French CBC in Winnipeg, but quickly realized it wasn’t for her. She soon began working at Les Productions Rivard doing research and field director work for about a year. It was through an opportunity with the NFB that she developed and directed her first short documentary 360 Degrees in 2008 and discovered her calling.

Caroline directed her first independent film, IKWÉ, through the Women’s Mosaic project with the Winnipeg Film Group.

It really is a small world! Local veteran director Paula Kelly was Caroline’s mentor during the creation of IKWÉ. Caroline says thanks to Paula she really learned the process of editing and cutting things out.

The other two films that are part of the same trilogy as Warchild are KWONI (‘That’s Enough’ in Cree) and Tashina. Caroline is still working on KWONI, but Tashina is premiering during the Gimme Some Truth Documentary Film Festival at the Cinematheque on Saturday October 23, 2010 at 7:30pm as part of the Capturing the Identity of Place Series. Tashina is also set to screen at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in October. Shot in colour, Tashina tells the story of a young girl who’s trying to fulfill her ambitions of being educated for the sake of giving back to her family and community, as she walks through the walls of the education system in a surreal type of maze.

Caroline is a very busy bee! In addition to making films, she has been working alongside Kevin Lee Burton and Sébastien Aubin in establishing ITWÉ (Cree for ‘Speak Out’), a trans-disciplinary centre dedicated to research, creation, production and education in the field of Aboriginal digital culture. ITWÉ also hosts events and showcases films that would otherwise not get exposure. In fact, the trilogy including Warchild is a project that was developed from/for ITWÉ.

Warchild is set to screen at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival!

Click here to read the OSM Article ‘Caroline Monnet Returns to TIFF With Her Film Warchild’

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