Loretta Sarah Todd
Filmmaker
Loretta Sarah Todd is a visionary in Indigenous media and a trailblazer in immersive technology. A respected artist with entrepreneurial energy and deep cultural knowledge, she is the Founder and Creative Director of the IM4 Media Lab—an Indigenous-led XR lab advancing Indigenous expression in creative extended reality (XR). Through the IM4 Lab, she has established a vital platform where Indigenous creators receive hands-on training, develop original XR works, and shape emerging technologies rooted in Indigenous values, science, and storytelling.
Her first feature film, Monkey Beach, based on the novel by Eden Robinson, launched to both critical and audience acclaim—screening at TIFF, opening VIFF, and sweeping drama categories at the American Indian Film Festival and the Red Nation Film Festival, including Best Film and Best Director. It held the distinction of being the #1 Canadian film at the box office for four consecutive weeks.
Ms. Todd has directed over 75 projects spanning award-winning documentaries (Forgotten Warriors, Hands of History, Today is a Good Day), digital media, games, apps, and animation. She also creates, produces, and showruns television series across genres, including Indigenous youth and children’s programming (Nehiyawetan, Coyote Science, Fierce Girls) and the sci-fi martial arts series Skye and Chang.
A tireless advocate for Indigenous talent, she builds pathways for Indigenous cast, crew, and creatives—shaping space for Indigenous production while also authoring influential essays on media, sovereignty, and representation. She was instrumental in establishing the Indigenous Arts Centre at the Banff Centre and now leads the IM4 Lab as a beacon of Indigenous innovation and tech leadership.
Ms. Todd was a Fellow with the inaugural Indigenous Delegation to the Co-Creation Studio at MIT, sponsored by the Indigenous Screen Office, and her seminal work Aboriginal Narratives in Cyberspace was published with MIT Press. A sought-after speaker, she has shared her insights at VIFF Immersed, the Global AR/VR Summit, Kidscreen, the Museum of Modern Art, and the United Nations' International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
