Jen Deerinwater: How did you get into filmmaking? 

Theo Cuthand: I got into it when I was 16 years old. I was in a workshop that was part of a queer film festival that was in Saskatoon in ‘95. It was just for that one year.

We made a video for that weekend called “Lessons in Baby Dyke Theory.” It was about trying to find other lesbians. It was this short, cute video…in the mid nineties, there wasn’t a lot of work being done by queer youth in the video art world. It traveled to all these queer film festivals internationally.

Jen Deerinwater: Your film Extractions covers a lot of topics in a very intersectional way. The ties between resource extractive industries and creative practices is relatively unknown to many. Many of them (resource extractive companies) fund museums and film festivals.

Theo Cuthand: I had this issue when I was in the Whitney Biennial. Warren B Kanders was on the board the year I was in the Biennial. He’s a war profiteer who made tear gas that was used in Palestine and on the US-Mexico border.

Jen Deerinwater: What advice do you have for Indigenous people, especially our Two-Spirit and queer relatives, who want to get into filmmaking?

Theo Cuthand: There are a lot of film festivals and artist run centers in “Canada” that have programs for emerging artists to make a film or learn. You can also apply to film school, but I think community-based learning is also key for people who don’t feel confident with the education system and want to experience more hands-on learning. If you’re learning editing, you can do a lot with YouTube tutorials.

I’m like a big believer in community-based art practices and teaching emerging Indigenous creatives skills. I come out of a DIY kind of punk community and aesthetic. I guess there’s still part of me that’s a scrappy punk that just wants these communities to not have to play the big art game with all the money people.

You can find Theo’s work at vimeo.com/thirzacuthand