Vinokurova, Aina

Aina Vinokurova is a filmmaker and screenwriter from Sakha Republic (Yakutia), now based in Regina, Saskatchewan. Deeply rooted in her Indigenous heritage, she is dedicated to telling stories that celebrate the resilience, culture, and history of Siberian Indigenous peoples. Born in a small village on the banks of the Lena River, Aina was raised with a strong connection to her cultural identity. In her thirties, she reconnected with her grandfather after decades of separation, leading to the discovery of her Even ancestry. This deeply personal revelation—following the loss of her mother at age five—marked a turning point that continues to shape her creative path. Aina holds a degree in Journalism and made history as the first Sakha-Even woman to appear on Russia’s federal television, an achievement that underscores her commitment to challenging cultural and ethnic stereotypes about people from national republics. However, she was forced to resign from federal television due to censorship and discrimination based on her nationality. After the war in Ukraine began, Aina moved to Canada, where she hopes to find a new home. In 2024, she graduated from InFocus Film School in Vancouver and founded Sulus Productions, a creative studio focused on telling the stories of small businesses and local communities through a human lens. Now pursuing her MA in Film Production at the University of Regina, Aina aims to deepen her understanding of Indigenous cinema in Canada and foster cross-cultural connections between filmmakers in Yakutia and North America. For Aina, cinema is a tool for self-discovery and collective healing. Through her films, she explores questions of identity, memory, and the inherited silences left by colonization. She believes that for Indigenous peoples, art is not only expression—it is survival, storytelling, and a form of resistance.