Marie Burke is of Cree/Dene and European ancestry and her cinema is informed by Indigenous community activism and journalism. She worked as a print journalist with the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta and as a broadcaster/reporter with A-Channel, where she created Indigenous programming. Her director credits include the four-part series The Quest of Buffalo Spirit; the documentary Spirit Doctors, featuring traditional Okanagan healers Mary and Ed Louie; and Vistas: Carrying Fire, one in a series of shorts by Indigenous directors on the theme of nationhood. She has worked as an Indigenous consultant for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.