Hayden Mountain Horse is a second year Multimedia Production student at Lethbridge College, and has been using her skills to bring conceptual characters to life for a practicum assignment she’s calling “a perfect fit”.
Working alongside Bej’a Christmas, founder and CEO of Anemoia Studios (a production house and talent agency in Oakland, California), Mountain Horse’s focus is to promote people of colour and other marginalized peoples and communities in the entertainment industry.
As a biracial person herself, Mountain Horse talks about how she immediately connected with Christmas’s work and desire to bring more diversity into productions.
“My mom is Indigenous, and my dad is white,” Mountain Horse says. “I grew up on the Blood Reserve, and I didn’t see anyone in movies or TV shows who looked like me. The work Bej’a is doing is really inspiring.”
Over the course of her 120 hour practicum, Mountain Horse has spent her time creating sketches and animations for a comic currently being developed by Christmas. The two are keeping in touch via email. Christmas has been outlining character ideas and sending them to Mountain Horse, who then brings them to life through her illustrations.
“I could not be more pleased with her work,” says Christmas. “A naturally gifted talent, and yet that doesn’t stop her from working hard and striving to create brilliance. Anemoia is very fortunate to have been aligned with such a talented young woman of colour.”
Mountain Horse and the other Multimedia Production second-year students will graduate in October as part of the college’s Fall 2022 Convocation.