Gregory Coyes ­ Biography

Gregory Coyes is a Metis with Cree, Mohawk, French and Polish ancestry. 
His films explore the Native experience, seeking to build bridges between 
communities and cultures. As a partner in Streaming Fiddles Media Inc., 
his latest documentary film, How the Fiddle Flows, has been described as, 
³a lushly photographed tribute to the fiddlers and stepdancers who have 
triumphantly kept the Metis culture alive.²  This lyrical film follows the 
historic path of Metis music up Canadaıs great river systems from the 
Gaspe coast to the Rocky Mountains. It was nominated for Best Documentary 
at the Native American Film Festival, San Francisco in 2002, and at the 
Leo Awards in British Columbia in 2003.

Greg was born and raised in central Alberta. After graduating from Yale 
University with a Bachelor of Science and lettering in hockey, he was 
about to pursue a career in geology when his lifeıs path took a serious 
detour. He landed a principal role in the feature film Running Brave, a 
dramatized biography of Billy Mills, a Lakota Sioux who won the 10,000 
meter race at the 1964 Olympics. Greg was cast as silver medal winner 
Mohammed Gamouhdi from Tunisia!

Bitten by the film bug, Greg then got behind-the-camera experience working 
on some of the biggest films to come out of Western Canada during the 
1980s, including My American Cousin, Cowboys Donıt Cry and Life After 
Hockey. He formed a partnership with Gil Cardinal at Great Plains 
Productions, where Coyes worked as a writer/director on the 
ground-breaking Native documentary series, My Partners, My People. He also 
worked in the roles of producer, production coordinator and 
writer/director on a number of award winning feature length documentaries, 
including Our Home and Native Land, Learning With Love and Healing 
Journey. He was also the creator and executive producer of All My 
Relations, the first nationally broadcast Native news magazine series for 
CBC television.  

Along with his partners at Storytellers Productions, Coyes co-created and 
co-produced three new episodes of the multi-award-winning, Stories from 
the Seventh Fire, an animated and live action series featuring the art of 
Norval Morrisseau. He and the Storytellers team also produced the 
background documentary Shared Visions:  The Art of Storytelling. 

Greg has worked extensively in the Native community and was the Creative 
Director for the audiovisual components of the permanent exhibit, ³The 
Aboriginal Peoplesı Gallery,² at the Provincial Museum of Alberta. Greg is 
also writing for the Smithsonian in preparation for the opening of the 
National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C in the fall of 
2004.  He is and athlete, a guitarist/songwriter, and the proud father of 
two boys, Sam and Jackson.