Playback is proud to present the 2025 cohort for our annual 10 to Watch. We are publishing individual profiles on all 10 industry talents over September and October.

Vancouver-based filmmaker, songwriter and composer Corey Payette bridges the gap between film and theatre by bringing his stage musicals to the screen.

A member of the Mattagami First Nations, Payette first ventured into the realm of narrative features with Les Filles du Roi, but has further established himself with Starwalker. The theatre production and its film counterpart centre on an Indigi-queer two-spirited call boy who finds a new persona as part of the East Vancouver drag community.

“People are [noticing that] this work is unique. There are not a lot of people doing Indigenous musicals out there, and especially new musicals,” Payette tells Playback Daily. “Things are snowballing in a way where the works I’ve done are aligning to support each other.”

Payette has been the artistic director of Marie Clements’ Indigenous and multi-cultural theatre company Urban Ink since 2014. During his tenure he has penned, composed and directed acclaimed musicals centred on Indigenous topics and themes such as Children of God, Sedna and Les Filles du Roi.

Payette began writing Starwalker in 2019 as another stage production, commissioned by Toronto’s Musical Stage Company. In 2021 he adapted it as a television series after Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada selected him for its Writers Program.

A year later, when Warner Bros. Discovery’s right to greenlight Starwalker as a series expired, Payette opted to bring it forward as a musical, both on stage and on screen.

Starwalker‘s theatrical production debuted in 2023, and principal photography on the film began two days after the play closed.

“We opened the doors of the theatre … and shot it on the streets, in the park, and all around East Vancouver, in a very scrappy indie film production,” says Payette.

He says that the film — which had a budget of around $800,000 — was able to capitalize on the immediacy of the shoot following the stage musical, as the cast had the show’s dance and musical numbers fresh in their minds.

Starwalker debuted at the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival in May. It claimed its first accolade at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival in August, winning the Alternative Spirit Award Grand Prize for a feature film.

The film is in the midst of its festival run, screening at the Whistler Film Festival in December and with more festivals on the horizon. Urban Ink is self-distributing, and Payette plans for a theatrical release in 2026.

Starwalker‘s marketing strategy also capitalizes on the connection between film and the stage. Working with Vancouver’s Pender PR, the team is releasing a soundtrack album on Oct. 17, and is hosting a live concert — The Starwalker Experience — at the Vancouver Playhouse on Nov. 14.

“We’re thinking outside the box and trying to blend all the aspects of the film to bring [in] audiences,” said Payette.

Payette’s roots in film date back to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Urban Ink needed a new way to connect with audiences absent tours or live productions. This resulted in Payette’s 2021 feature documentary Stories that Transform Us, which explored the history and impact of the Urban Ink theatre company.

Payette’s attention soon turned to Urban Ink’s theatrical productions, and he set his sights on Les Filles du Roi, co-written with Julie McIsaac, as his first narrative feature.

With a budget of around $500,000, the film follows a pair of Mohawk siblings in 1665 who forge a relationship with a young French woman upon her arrival in what would become Quebec.

McIsaac, who also stars in the film, reunited with Payette for the adaptation. The two began developing the project in 2021, and went to camera that September.

According to McIsaac, her and Payette’s theatre history functioned as both a boon and challenge. She says that while Payette’s experience running a theatre company transitioned well to managing and directing a film production, the script still had some holdovers from their theatre habits.

“[Les Filles du Roi] was a learning journey for us in terms of ‘show don’t tell.’ In film, you can have a close-up and read the thoughts in the character’s eyes,” says McIsaac. “In the theatre context, where some people are watching from the last row, they need more information. They don’t have that intimacy with the storytelling that you can get through film.”

Despite the challenges, the team produced a film accepted by audiences and the industry at large. Following its 2023 debut, Les Filles du Roi scored seven nominations at the 2024 Leo Awards — claiming two prizes — and won a writing honour at the 2024 Reelworld Film Festival.

Now, with the experience he has gained from his first two narrative features, Payette says he is ready to level up his budget with his next project, The Brightest Red.

Currently in the process of pitching and financing, The Brightest Red is an adaptation of Payette’s Children of God,  his first stage musical as director, writer and composer. The two-act, 130-minute play follows the mother of an Oji-Cree family and her children who are taken away to a northern Ontario residential school.

“I didn’t feel that I was ready, as a director, to tell that story on film as my first feature,” he says. “I needed to learn and really develop my skills as a director first, and I’ve been able to do that.”

Payette anticipates The Brightest Red will require $3.5 million to produce, due to the complexity of the story and a larger cast.

For mentorship and assistance, Payette has teamed up with Jennifer Podemski, who has boarded as an executive producer and has also been working with him on the creative and narrative aspects of the film.

“He’s doing something completely unique, very special, [in] his own voice,” says Podemski. “I’ve been blown away by his skill, the way he writes and the way he tells stories … I’m excited to see what he makes next, and I hope that I get to do it with him.”

Payette will be the lead producer on The Brightest Red, joined by Screen Siren’s Steven Thibault.

“There are not a lot of people doing Indigenous musicals out there, and especially new musicals,” says Payette. “I’m excited for that next step.”

Beyond The Brightest Red, Payette has two projects in development: On Native Land, a legal drama series exploring Indigenous sovereignty, pop stardom and intergenerational healing; and Monarch, an original musical feature using an Indigenous lens to examine themes such as matriarchy and legacy.

“These stories are speaking to the realities and the truth of our nation, of things that happened and continue to happen on these lands,” says McIsaac. “I think the more we get local, and the more we get specific about the stories of this place, the more of a contribution we can make, both nationally and internationally. You’re shedding light on a story that people aren’t familiar with, that people haven’t seen yet.”

Photo by Luke Fontana