Ottawa-born, Métis writer-director Shane Belcourt likes to call himself a film-school dropout. But the son of Tony Belcourt, a well-known Métis leader and Aboriginal-rights activist, got an even earlier start behind the camera.

In high school, Shane worked on educational videos for Aboriginal organizations about topics like fetal alcohol syndrome and domestic abuse.

Tkaronto is Shane's feature film debut. The title is an old Mohawk word for "Toronto" and means "where there are trees standing in the water".

The small-budget film was shot over 17 days with a crew of six people and stars an all-Aboriginal cast.

Shane not only wrote and directed the film, but he's also its cinematographer and producer. He wrote and performed the closing song too.

The film focuses on two characters: Ray, a Métis writer from Vancouver who comes to Toronto to discuss a movie version of his graphic novel, and Jolene, an Anishinabe artist working on a series of portraits of elders.

Together, both characters struggle with what it means to be Aboriginal in today's world.

Tkaronto had its world premiere at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2007. Since then, it's received rave reviews and several awards, including the Best Director and Best Actress awards at the 2008 Talking Stick Film Festival.