Amanda Strong is a Canadian Screen Award and Emmy nominated director, artist, stop motion storyteller and has served as a media based artist for nearly 20 years. She is Michif/Red River Métis and is a member of the MMF (Manitoba Métis Federation) . Strong is the owner, producer and director of the Vancouver based animation studio Spotted Fawn Productions Inc where they create stop motion animations, books, installations and explore digital technologies that compliment the hand made art of stop motion. Sher is also a director at Atomic Cartoons where she is the current director of Emmy nominated 2D animated TV series, Molly of Denali on PBS.

Strong started Spotted Fawn Productions in 2009 (incorporated in 2014), as a space to merge her artistic interests and training with the dream to make stories move – in informative, educational, entertaining and visually exciting ways. True to that vision, Spotted Fawn Productions is focussed on telling Indigenous stories by Indigenous storytellers in ways that captivate the audience and serve the stories she has represented in her works. 

At the core, Strong is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on filmmaking, stop motion animation and moving image art.  She received a BAA in Interpretative Illustration and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Sheridan Institute. With a cross-disciplinary  focus, common themes of her work are reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture. Under her direction, SFP utilizes a multi-layered approach and unconventional methods that are centered in collaboration on all aspects of their work.

Strong’s studio successes have screened and exhibited across the globe, most notably at Cannes, TIFF, TIFF Top 10, VIFF, OIAF, Museum of Anthropology, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the National Museum of American History. A collaboration of which she is particularly proud is with notable First Nations advocate Dr. Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. Together they have produced the Society’s children’s animation series Spirit Bear, which has been well received throughout Canada. Her Film Biidaaban (the dawn comes) was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and was supported by the Clyde Gilmour Technicolour Award via the legendary documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. In addition to film, Strong is the author of the graphic novel Four Faces of the Moon, based on her short animation. 

Strong directed, produced and edited her latest film Inkwo For When the Starving Return, which has acquired the talents of world renowned artists and collaborators from past stop motion features Coraline, Paranorman, Corpse Bride, Wendell and Wild and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. It was the first Canadian and animated project selected for Sundance’s Native Film Lab. The film is set to have its World Premiere at TIFF 2024. She is currently developing her first stop motion feature film.

Amanda grew up in Mississauga, Ontario where she shared in her late grandmother’s active involvement in Métis community service and politics. Her grandmother, Olivine nee Bousquet, was born and raised in St. Boniface, Manitoba. Her family lines are readily recognizable Red River Métis families: Bousquet, Carrier, Wilkie, Azure, Fisher, and Laframboise. They were active community members of the historic communities of St Boniface, Lorette, St Vital, Qu’appelle, Pembina, and Turtle Mountain spanning both sides of the border. Strong’s great-great grandfather Napoleon Bousquet, the godson of Gabriel Dumont, fought in the battle of Batoche as a teenager, helping to load muskets with Dumont in the trenches. Her grandmother shared many other family stories of the struggles of their ancestors, while impressing upon Strong the need to serve community. Strong is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. She was also deeply honoured by her adoption in 2022 by Chief Willie Walkus of the Gwa’sala ‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations, where she was given the name, T’lakwaga (Copper Woman).