Panel: imagineNATIVE’s Journey – A Leadership Conversation

Join us for a conversation with key individuals who have led and built imagineNATIVE from the very beginning to now. Panelists include: Danis Goulet, Naomi Johnson, Cynthia Lickers-Sage, Jason Ryle, and Kerry Swanson. Moderated by Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF.

Friday June 6, 2025 @10AM
TIFF Cinema 3

Danis Goulet
Danis Goulet is an award-winning writer and director. Her films have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, the Berlin International Film Festival, MoMA and the Toronto International Film Festival. She is a former programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and a former director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. In 2018, she joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in 2021, she joined the Board for the Toronto International Film Festival. Her debut feature Night Raiders premiered in the Panorama section of the 2021 Berlinale and was selected as a Gala Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival 2021 where Danis was recognized with a TIFF Tribute Award. She was also awarded the Directors Guild of Canada’s Discovery Award in 2021 and the film won the Grand Prix at the Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal. Danis also completed production on a Netflix thriller in 2021. She is Cree/Metis, originally from La Ronge, Saskatchewan.

Cameron Bailey
Cameron Bailey is the Chief Executive Officer of TIFF and the Toronto International Film Festival — the world’s largest public film festival and one of Canada’s leading cultural Institutions. Born in London, England, and raised in both England and Barbados, Bailey later immigrated to Canada. He began his career as a film critic before joining TIFF as a programmer, where he curated Canadian, African, and South Asian cinema. Bailey has taught film curation at the University of Toronto and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Western University. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. In April 2025, he was awarded the prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of his outstanding achievements and significant contributions to Canada. For 13 consecutive years (2012–2024), Toronto Life has named him one of the city’s 50 Most Influential People.

Naomi Johnson 
Naomi Johnson, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Bear clan from Six Nations, has worked in the arts for over eighteen years as a programmer, curator and arts administrator, most notably as the Artistic Director for the Woodland Cultural Centre (2012 -2019). In June 2020, Naomi assumed her role as Executive Director for imagineNATIVE, the world’s largest Indigenous media arts festival, an organization with a mission to showcase, promote, and celebrate Indigenous-led creators. Trained as an artist, a practiced arts facilitator, curator and arts administrator Naomi has dedicated her life to the arts and its workers. In 2023 Naomi was honoured by the Toronto Arts Foundation with the Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Award, celebrating an individual artist, creator, or administrator who has demonstrated creative cultural leadership in developing arts and culture.

Cynthia Lickers-Sage
Cynthia Lickers-Sage (Kanienkeha:ka, Turtle Clan) is a proud recipient of the Governor-General of Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross. Following her graduation at the Ontario College of Art and Design, she Co-Founded The Centre for Aboriginal Media, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Tkaronto Music Festival, Tkaronto Productions and is the sole proprietor of Clickers Productions. She has spent the last three decades working in the Government and not-for-profit arts sector as the former Executive Director at the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts, and the General Manager at Kaha:wi Dance Theatre where she gained valuable skills to take on her current position as the Executive Director at the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance.

Jason Ryle
Jason Ryle is the International Programmer, Global Indigenous Cinema at the Toronto International Film Festival. In this role, Jason has selected works created by Indigenous directors from outside Canada. He is Anishinaabe from Lake St. Martin, Manitoba, and has spent his career working within the Indigenous media arts community. From July 2010 to June 2020, Jason was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE, an Indigenous-run organization mandated to support Indigenous filmmakers and media artists. In this capacity, Jason oversaw all operational and artistic activities of the annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest showcase of Indigenous screen content. From 2013 until 2020, he was an Advisor for Indigenous films at the Berlinale, and from 2015 to 2020 he oversaw the Indigenous Cinema stand at the European Film Market. In February 2021, Jason received the Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. The award is bestowed to Canadians whose work has in some way enriched the understanding and appreciation of film in their native country. Apart from TIFF, Jason works as an independent producer, curator, and story editor.

Kerry Swanson
Kerry Swanson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), an independent funding organization serving First Nations, Inuit and Métis screen-based creators across Canada. Kerry has led the organization’s rapid growth and initiated multiple public and private partnerships including with Netflix, Sundance, Amazon Studios, MIT, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm and the Government of Canada. Kerry is also co-founder and strategic advisor for Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival, a celebrated multi-platform biennial event in Toronto. She has served as both Board Chair and Executive Director of the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, and has worked in leadership roles at provincial and municipal funding agencies. Kerry was born and raised in Chapleau, northern Ontario, in a Cree/Ojibwe, Irish and French family. She is a member of Michipicoten First Nation with familial ties to Chapleau Cree First Nation.