I am a filmmaker and ex-Jehovah's Witness of mixed settler and Indigenous heritage. I was born and raised in the unceded territories of "British Columbia", and am currently pursuing my MFA in Film Production at York University.
I was raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses by two second-generation Witnesses named Daniel Lacosse and Tamara Sears. My mother is Welsh and English, while my father is Scottish, French, Cree and Ojibwe, and is registered as part of the Eabametoong First Nation. They were married for eight years and divorced when I was four years old. My mother was given custody of myself and my sister, and we continued to be raised as Jehovah's Witnesses until I made the difficult decision to lead a secular life in my late teens.
This posed a number of existential questions for me: who was I, now that my life indebted eternally was severed? If I were to leave, would I also be severed from my family who remain in the Faith? These were but a few of those questions that sat at the horizon for me. Even today they still glint in the distance.
Since passing the threshold into the World, I have made it my goal to make films that interrogate my feelings and experiences, to map out my intersectional identity as an adult, an ex-Witness, a person of mixed heritage, and as an artist. I hope to help myself and others navigate their feelings and the fog of personhood.
I may not be able to bring others into Paradise but I can certainly try to help myself and others make sense of where they are, who they are, and how they are.
