Biography

Rylan Friday is an multidisciplinary award winning director, curator, writer and producer from Cote First Nation, Saskatchewan. His focus is to bring an honest discourse of LGBTQ2+ & Indigenous representation to the big screen. In 2019, he produced Trevor Mack's debut feature film Portraits From a Fire and helped implement its peer-to-peer mentorship program for Indigenous youth. Rylan has gone onto win the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, CMPA Indie Screen Awards out of Prime Time Ottawa 2022 and the Leo Award for Best Motion Picture for my efforts on Mack's debut feature.

His works have screened at VIFF, FTQFF, The Lift-Off Sessions LA, FNFVF Chicago and Festival Mix: Film & Sexual Diversity in Mexico City and imagineNative. Rylan became the first openly gay Indigenous filmmaker to spearhead the 2020 iteration of the Vancouver International Film Festival's (VIFF) Catalyst Mentorship Program, and help establish and curate the highly successful #Indigeneity series for Reel Causes. I was also the lead curator for the Who We Are Indigenous Film Series, a collaboration with VIFF and the Museum of Vancouver.
- IMDb mini biography by: Rylan Friday