With a practice rooted in theatrical drama and explorative documentary, Mangaard's films investigate notions and nuances of freedom within the confines of structural expectations.
[6] Mangaard's first screening involved early film, She Bit Me Seriously (1984), which was featured as a part of the 1985 Cache Du Cinema program at The Funnel, curated by Dot Tuer, John Porter, and Paul McGowan.
[8] Mangaard's early body of work also included There is in Power...Seduction (1985), and The Tyranny of Architecture (1987), which screened at YYZ as an installation in 1987, and also at the New Waves In Cinema Toronto program (1987).
Mangaard's quirky cinematic style gained much recognition with the release of Fish Tale Soup (1997), a romantic comedy of a contemporary couple trying to have a child, which marked her debut as a feature film writer and director.
[12] The 1998 City TV premiere garnered much critical praise and the film screened theatrically at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto and in a number of other theatres across Canada.
In 2010, Mangaard produced and directed Kingaait: Riding Light into the World (2010), a film addressing the changing face of the Inuit artists of Cape Dorset for Bravo, TVO and APTN.
[20] In 2011 Mangaard travelled to Sydney, and presented her video installation Hidden at the Armory Gallery alongside works from Michael Snow, Bonita Ely, Richard Goodwin, Pia Mannikko, and Ian Howard.
Bonita Ely's review for the National Sculpture Magazine of China describes Hidden: "[it] takes us through liminal zones where nature and urban life are juxtaposed, both ceaselessly transforming, and interrelating".
[21] After returning to do her master's degree at OCAD University, Mangaard's work shifted from the confines of the screen to an expanded cinematic form of documentary art making.
Her MFA thesis exhibition Meltdown (2017) investigates a seascape in multiple forms with media installations depicting enlarged microscopically filmed images of underwater tidal pools and a projected iceberg at various scenarios, refracted from suspended acrylic.