Pamela Matthews, from the Sachigo Lake Cree Nation of Northern Ontario, is a freelance filmmaker/director/producer and actor. She was a Director/Instructor/Editor for the San Francisco Native American Film Institute’s 2003 Tribal Touring Program which teaches filmmaking to Native youth. She completed 12 short films for the Susanville Rancheria, and the Soboba and Hoopa Valley Indian Reservations in California.

Pam studied film at Ryerson Polytechnic University where, in June 2003, she received the University’s top award for Academic Achievement, the Ryerson Gold Medal Award and the Howard H. Kerr Memorial Scholarship. She also received two nominations for Best Achievement in Motion Picture Film Production (The Stalker, Only the Devil Speaks Cree) and won the Award of Merit for Best Achievement in the Business of Film.

Her film Only the Devil Speaks Cree, a drama about a woman who survives residential school, had its World Premiere at Toronto’s imagineNATIVE Film Festival in October 2002 where it won the Honourable Mention for Best Drama. She was also very honoured to have her film chosen for the Opening Night Gala at the prestigious American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco in November 2002 where it won the Award for Best Short Film. Only the Devil Speaks Cree was also nominated for Best Script and won the Best Foreign Film Award at the Down Under Film Festival in Darwin, Australia (May 2003), the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Native American Film & Television Alliance Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Audience Award for Best Native Film at the Big Bear Film Festival in Big Bear, CA (September 2003). Only the Devil has appeared in festivals throughout the US and Canada as well as in northern Norway and Australia.

Pam also directed and edited the American Indian Film Institute’s Awards Show for the 2003 Festival and was Production Associate for the 2004 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (and 2002) for which she also served as the Camera Operator / Director and Co-Writer for the Award Recipient videos.

As an actor, Pam has appeared in theatres across the country and has numerous film and television credits, most notably garnering a Gemini Award Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress for the role of Suzie Muskrat in North of 60.

Pam earned her B.Sc. degree in Biology from Mount Allison University, graduated from the Ryerson Theatre School in 1989 and studied directing at the prestigious Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and at the Lincoln Center Theatre in New York City. She was a Programmer for the REEL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL and served on the Board of the Centre for Aboriginal Media (imagineNATIVE Festival).

Artist Code: 716