jlf

Jessica Lea Fleming is a Métis / Scottish-settler cisgender woman originally from Penetanguishene, Ontario. She is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer and performer. Jessica creates in multi-disciplinary mediums as a means of exploring connection, identity and traditional knowledge. A Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario since 2002, she has spent her adulthood working to honour her familial and traditional Métis practices. Jessica is especially drawn to examining the duality and nuance of her mixed heritage as an opportunity to engage in -and encourage- emotional, environmental and cultural sovereignty.

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Jessica has directed for TV Series AMPLIFY on APTN, Couleurs du Nord for TFO, as well as music videos for multi-award winning artists Celeigh Cardinal and iskwē, which garnered her a Prism Prize nomination in 2020. Her work has been featured at festivals and events such as Native Earth Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival (2014, 2018), Pan Am Games (2015), Buddies in Bad Times’ Building Reciprocity Cabaret (2017), the Indigenous Writers Gathering (2016), Skábmagovat Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary Spotlight on North America (2017), the National Screen Institute (2018), imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (2019) and the Santa Fe Film Festival where her debut short film “scales” won Best Native Narrative Short (2017). 

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Jessica has programmed for the Regent Park Film Festival (2016), Talking Stick Festival (2016), the AGH Film Festival (2019, 2020), SpringWorks Festival (2020), IPAA's Inter-Tribal Gathering (2021) and been a member of imagineNATIVE’s Awards Jury (2017). In 2015 she was a Featured Leader for the Ontario Ministry on the Status of Women and in 2017 she was one of twenty Invited Contributors to the 20th Canadian Arts Summit.​ 

 

An avid community builder, Jessica sat on the Aanji Bimaadiziwin Toronto Museums Indigenous Programming Advisory Group, the Independent Media Arts Alliance Working Group, The Theatre Centre Board of Directors and the K.M. Hunter Foundation Board of Directors. She was an Artist-in-Residence for Toronto's Luminato Festival and Theatre Aquarius, and continues to collaborate with and support emerging and mid-career artists from Indigenous and Equity seeking communities. 

 

As a leader, she has held roles as a Consultant with the City of Toronto, as Community Access Director with Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival and as Associate Director at imagineNATIVE. In her current role as Director of Growth & Inclusion at the Canada Media Fund, Jessica aims to increase equitable access across the audiovisual industry. She lives in Toronto with her spouse and child.