Leslie Supnet Creating space for Filipino stories in film

	Since taking on the role of executive director of the Winnipeg Film Group in 2022, Leslie Supnet has focused on supporting artists, strengthening accessibility, preserving film, and creating space for new voices in Winnipeg’s independent film community. (Photo by Henning Frederik Malz, 2026)

by Oscar Pantaleon Jr.

The moment Leslie Supnet stepped out of the Artspace elevator, I knew it was her. I had looked her up earlier after seeing her name announced in a dialogue with filmmaker Isiah Medina. Her family name caught my attention. It reminded me of a friend and fellow chorister, Filipino composer Dada de Pano Supnet.

So, I introduced myself. She was warm, friendly, and accommodating. For someone I had just met, she was an easy person to talk to.

Leslie is a moving-image artist, filmmaker, educator, and arts administrator. Her work explores loss, change, and the passage of time, often through animation, live action, collage, and hands-on experimentation. Her films have been screened in Canada and internationally, and she has taught and mentored artists through various community and academic settings. She holds an MFA in film production from York University and has been serving as executive director of the Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) since 2022.

But before film festivals and mentorships, there was her Lolo.

Artists in the family

“When I look back at my trajectory, the most profound influence during my upbringing was my Lolo,” Leslie says. Her grandfather was a carpenter by trade, commissioned to build pews, podiums, and even an altar. On the side, he was a diorama artist who restored church sculptures.

As early as seven years old, Leslie witnessed her Lolo’s carpentry in progress. “It was pure magic,” she recalls. Seeing his works in church amazed her. “Those pieces gave me my first real feeling of artistic awe,” she reveals. She also remembers making her own little works of art on rainy days, doodling on the window while her grandfather held her up.

Their home was another gallery of sorts. Every room features traditional Filipino carpentry he had made, including intricate wood carvings that Leslie would stare at for hours. “I feel like my journey took the shape of his floral reliefs, with many artistic waves and emotional ups and downs!”

Creating opportunities

Leslie’s creative life eventually led her to the Winnipeg Film Group, where she now helps create opportunities for other artists. “When I took on the role at the WFG, the organization was navigating a very difficult period,” she shares.

Since then, she has been proud of accomplishments such as acquiring an archival film scanner to support filmmakers who continue to work with analogue formats. The Dave Barber Cinematheque box office was also renovated to improve physical accessibility.

Through the WFG, she has also helped bring Filipino cinema and filmmakers into Winnipeg screens and conversations. Closer to home, emerging artists such as Angeline Javier are finding opportunities to develop and present their work.

Her favourite accomplishments, however, may not be things you can put on a balance sheet. “I am profoundly proud of the staff I get to work alongside, the community members I meet, and the independent filmmakers we are privileged to support every day,” Leslie says.

Artist-run organizations, she believes, are about creating places where artists can experiment, meet one another, and make things that might not otherwise have a home.

Living between cultures

When she began 20 years ago, Leslie remembers meeting only one Filipino Canadian filmmaker. Today, she no longer needs to wonder where the others are.

She is excited about the growing number of Filipino Canadian filmmakers creating innovative films that reflect diasporic experiences and the complexities of living between cultures. “My hope for the next generation is that this community continues to expand, such that our histories are preserved, and our continuous identities are celebrated on (and off) screen.”

Leslie adds, “For myself as an artist, I want to keep pushing experimental boundaries to explore how animation, and its material quality of being fluid mimics diasporic identity.”

Reach and representation

This brings us back to her Lolo. His wood carvings preserved something of the Filipino identity in the most ordinary surroundings. Leslie’s films and her work with other filmmakers are doing something similar in a different medium: creating, preserving, and sharing stories of who we are.

Looking ahead, Leslie wants to see filmmaking within reach to even more people and to see more communities represented on screen. “I want the WFG to continue being an accessible launching pad and a space where ideas can ferment, grow, and take shape,” she says.

That idea of creating space may be the thread connecting Leslie’s ethos as an artist, an administrator, and a Filipino Canadian.