Adedokun Waliyu 
A filmmaker from Walpole Island First Nation has returned to the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of two of her projects.
Eva Thomas, based in Wallaceburg and Toronto, attended the 2023 festival for her short film, Redlights.
This year, the festival will screen her debut feature film Aberdeen, co-directed and co-written with Ryan Cooper. A news release described the film as a “raw, authentic drama about an Indigenous climate-change refugee adjusting to big-city life and facing intergenerational trauma.”
Thomas is also an executive producer on the film.
As well, Thomas is the executive producer on a short film premiering at TIFF called Seeds.
Thomas and Kaniehtiio Horn, who writes, directs and stars in the film, were selected for the TIFF Every Story Accelerator with their film. The program “aims to help advance projects from emerging creators with diverse backgrounds,” according to the TIFF website.
Redlights, Thomas’s 2023 short film, was based on Thelma and Louise and what’s called the Starlight Tours in Saskatchewan – a reference to a practice in which police would arrest an Indigenous person and then take them to a remote location and leave them there, usually in freezing temperatures.
Redlights won Best Short Film at 2024 Canadian Film Fest and the Short Film Impact Award at GEMSFest Vancouver in 2024. Thomas was nominated a 2023 Directors Guild of Canada award in Best Short Film.
The film can be viewed on CBC Gem.
Thomas recently received Telefilm funding for her next feature film, Nika and Madison, which is based on Redlights. According to the news release, the film “follows Nika and Madison as they become fugitives after Nika saves Madison from a sexual assault by beating down a police officer.”
The project will begin filming in October around Ontario.
Thomas has also worked as an associate producer on the film Night Raiders, has directed episodes of the CBC documentary series Still Standing, and has written for CTV’s Shelved, CTV/APTN’s Acting Good and Crave/APTN’s Don’t Even.
Thomas won a Canadian Screen Award for best direction (factual) for her work on Still Standing.
The Toronto International Film Festival started Sept. 5 and runs until Sept. 15.
