Goulet’s Night Raiders brings its dystopian world to Toronto

Now in production, the sci-fi film boasts Taika Waititi as an executive producer, with Toronto's Alcina Pictures and Manitoba's Eagle Vision coproducing alongside New Zealand's Miss Conception Films.

Production is underway in Toronto on Night Raiders, an Indigenous and female-led sci-fi film directed by Danis Goulet.

The feature is a Canada/New Zealand coproduction between Toronto’s Alcina Pictures, Manitoba’s Eagle Vision and New Zealand’s Miss Conception Films. It is written and directed by Goulet, who comes from Cree and Métis descent, and takes place in a dystopian world where a Cree woman joins a group of vigilantes to free her daughter from the state in a military-run North America. Night Raiders marks Goulet’s directorial feature film debut, and will wrap on Nov. 11.

Producers on the feature include Alcina president Paul Barkin, Sphere Media Plus’ Tara Woodbury and Miss Conception Films’ Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Condor. Filmmaker Taika Waititi is among the executive producers for the film, alongside Eagle Vision’s Lisa Meeches and Kyle Irving. Jojo Rabbit producer Chelsea Winstanley serves as co-producer.

Elevation Pictures holds the Canadian distribution rights to Night Raiders while XYZ Films will handle U.S. sales.

Filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) stars in the film alongside Brooklyn Letexier-Hart (Burden of Truth), Shaun Sipos (Dark Matter), Alex Tarrant (Seachange) and Amanda Plummer (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), the daughter of Oscar winner Christopher Plummer.

Night Raiders is produced in participation of Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, Ontario Creates, New Zealand Film Commission, and Manitoba Film & Music, and in association with CBC Films and Bell Media’s Crave. It was developed with the help of the Sundance Institute, as well as the Harold Greenberg Fund.