Laura Rietveld

Laura is recent lauréate of the Counsel of Arts and Letters of Quebec (CALQ) Prize for Work of an Emerging Montreal Artist for 2015. Her first documentary, Okpik’s Dream, aired on CBC throughout 2015, was nominated for Best Documentary Program at the 2016 Canadian Screen Awards, won Grand Prix, Rigoberta Menchú Award at the 2015 Montreal First Peoples Festival, Honourable Mention for the Grand Prize at the 2015 Innsbruck Nature Film Festival in Austria, and continues to screen at festivals and events in Canada and internationally.

Prior to filmmaking, Laura had a successful career in corporate media sales and publishing. In 2010, after thinking long and hard about it, she resigned from her career to pursue the dream of becoming a storyteller. She had no experience or contacts, only a long-burning desire to create inspiring and thoughtful stories.

Besides a corporate career in media and publishing, Laura has traveled 500 km across the arctic by snowmobile, walked 900 km across France and Spain, and lived on a Chinese junk in South African harbours. She is a former YES Montreal & Canadian Youth Business Foundation business mentor and the mother of a four-year-old. Laura holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey
School of Business and BA in History from Queens University.