Little Bird is a beautiful short film about grief. The story follows Jonah, a son struggling to deal with the loss of his mother. During his late mother’s wake, Jonah runs off with her urn so they can spend one last day together. The film is a breath of fresh air in this ‘post pandemic’ world where many audiences have experienced grief themselves. Offering up a lighter tone with comedic elements that writer, director and star, Timothy Myles, draws upon from his time at Toronto’s Second City, Little Bird is the therapy we need right now.

This lighthearted film is deeply personal to its creator, as Myles drew upon his own experience losing his mother in 2013. Unable to deal with his grief at the time and running away from it, like his leading character, Myles decided to use his isolated time during the pandemic to write this beautiful tribute to his mother.

At the time of his mother’s funeral, Myles hometown in Newfoundland experienced a snowstorm making it impossible for mourners to attend the funeral. Myles says his mother was loved by many so the funeral would have been filled with loving friends and family, had they been able to attend. Since he couldn’t do it in reality, Myles decided to give his mother the proper send off with this film, writing about how he would have loved to spend the day with his mother at the sunny beach that mirrored her sunny spirit.

Although the film is a lighter take on the process of grief, it is only because Myles had time on his side. “It had been six years after her passing.” Says Myles, “If I had made the film a year or two after it happened, it would have been a different story.” Myles admits this film was an important story to tell for his own healing journey as he had “buried the grief so long, I just wanted it to come out.”

After the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Timothy Myles was named by Blog T.O as an up-and-coming Indigenous filmmaker to watch. Although Myles has Mi’kmaq on his mother’s side, he says he grew up with his ‘white’ side. He still wanted to weave his Indigenous heritage into the film as a tribute to his late mother who was learning the language before her death.

The use of his heritage in the film is a way for him to honour his mother and the culture. Myles does this brilliantly by subtly infusing his indigeneity into the film through use of artwork from the reserve, nature in the sound design, and the Indigenous cast that breathes life into his story.

Myles subtle use of his heritage in the film is a great start to a debate on Indigenous filmmaking that has been on the rise recently. “Everybody just wants to see trauma and heritage minutes from Indigenous people,” Myles says. “I was sensitive on how to portray it because I didn’t want to fabricate any part of the story or speak on things I could not speak on.”

As for future projects, Myles says, “The stories I want to tell aren’t necessarily Indigenous, nor do I think I am the right person to tell that story. That is a part of who I am and who my mom is. I think she really would have liked that I did it for Little Bird.”

Myles is currently in development on his debut feature film, a dark comedy titled I Don’t Throw Small Tantrums.

TIM MYLES is a writer, director and actor. He began his career directing music videos for various labels such as Universal Music and Island Records. His debut short film LITTLE BIRD, was made in partnership with imagineNATIVE and NETFLIX Canada, and premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was nominated for an IMDBPro award for best Canadian short film at TIFF. It was named one of ’10 must see Indigenous Films’ during the festival, and Tim was named one of the ‘10 Indigenous Artists in Toronto you should know’ by Blog TO in 2021. His most recent work was second unit directing a spot for Lululemon X Team Canada, which premiered at the 2022 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. You can see him in the upcoming Keifer Sutherland crime drama RABBIT HOLE, Warner Brothers upcoming biopic series BORJE, and the Lifetime thriller MAID TO KILL. He is represented by Amanda Rosenthal Talent Agency in Canada.

Samantha Loney is a Metis writer and podcaster from Barrie, Ontario. She has produced podcast episodes the Indigenous 150+ Podcast and is the writer and star of the fictional podcast series, Herstory the Podcast Series, available wherever you get your podcasts. She currently runs a nonprofit Metis and Me that teaches podcasting and storytelling to Metis youth, whose stories can be found on the Travelling Metis podcast.