Justin Ducharme -
Justin Ducharme was born and raised in the small Métis community of St. Ambroise, Manitoba. He is a graduate from Vancouver Film School, and the writer/director of four fashion films and three short narratives, most recently the 2018 drama, Positions, which tells the story of a queer, Indigenous, male sex worker in Vancouver. Justin has been jigging since the age of 7, performing with The St. Ambroise Youth Steppers and the Louis Riel Métis Dancers. He has worked as the Festival Programmer at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival since the 2017 season. He most recently programmed their 2018 two-spirit/indigiqueer spotlight, decolonizing disciplines: a two-spirit showcase that included works from Thirza Cuthand, Clint Alberta, Edzi’u, Beric Manywounds and more – including his curated shorts film program Indigiqueer Shorts from Turtle Island & Aotearoa. He is currently co-editing Hustling Verse: an anthology of Sex Workers Poetry with Amber Dawn to be published in fall of 2019 by Arsenal Pulp Press. Justin is currently working on his first poetry collection under the mentorship of Jonina Kirton. He is passionate about radicalizing Indigenous “Canadian” cinema, exploring different ways to approach his filmmaking and writing bad poetry about people that broke his heart and the ones that paid to do so.