Issuu

PRESENTING PARTNER

FILM + MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

ONLINE OCT 19 – 24, 2021

Wa’atkwanonhwerá:ton

Welcome

Tânisi.

Tânisi from Turtle Island.

Welcome everyone to our 22nd imagineNATIVE Festival!

It is my great honour and privilege in the time of the Falling Leaves Moon, when Mother Earth gets ready to put on her colourful dancing harvest shawl to welcome our relatives from near and far to the 22nd annual imagineNATIVE Festival!

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank the imagineNATIVE team for their leadership, dedication, and vision for our second virtual Festival — accessible around the world to a growing, global audience. Last year we had record attendance and participation in our first virtual Festival. Our team has built on this momentum and this year has envisioned innovative and exciting new ways to bring Indigenous storytelling to the public. While COVID-19 has kept so many apart we have sought new ways to connect us all — across our global community — through the power of storytelling. This virtual Festival builds on the last 21 years of a vibrant and growing community of Indigenous cinematic, artistic, and inspired creators. We thank each and every one of you. We honour you and we celebrate you. We look forward to connecting with each of you virtually, at home and around the world. Happy Festival! Kinanaskomitinan! We thank you! Ekosi

This past year has been one of extreme changes for everyone as we all have had to shift and move in different and difficult situations, working to regain and find our footing in life once again. It is with this shifting that we look to one of our great teachers: Paskwawimostos, the Bison. Paskwawimostos, who stands in the Western Doorway and watches over and protects the River of Life, gifts to us her whole being to sustain life, and through her knowledge and teachings she provides her strength and determination for us to live Miyo Pimatisiwin — The Good Life. At one time she was almost wiped out, but our Elders heard her hooves rumbling in the earth and we knew she was still here. Through our gratitude ceremonies and dances, she has become stronger and more sure-footed to clear away anything on our path that may hinder us. As imagineNATIVE brings us together to share and showcase our stories, arts, and languages I would like to remind everyone that we are as resilient as Paskwawimostos, the Bison. We have her entle, inner strength and determination, to keep clearing our life paths. Blessings and have a wonderful Festival! Hiy Hiy,

Kona Goulet Chair, imagineNATIVE Board of Directors

Piyesiw ikwe (Thunder Woman)|Grandmother Pauline Shirt Cultural Advisor, imagineNATIVE

imagineNATIVE Wa’atkwanonhwerá:ton / Welcome

The Land That Sustains Us

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

We at imagineNATIVE acknowledge that this land, located on presentday Tkaronto (Toronto), is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Since the first Festival in 2000, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has programmed film, video, audio, and digital media works made by Canadian and international Indigenous media artists in key creative roles as producers, directors, and/or writers. In programming these works over the years, imagineNATIVE has embraced works from Indigenous creators that push artistic boundaries to represent a diversity of ideas, themes, and genres in our programming, seeking representations of subjects that would not necessarily be made available through mainstream media.

We acknowledge the Dish With One Spoon covenant, a treaty whose spirit is one based in collective stewardship and reciprocity. We take the spirit of this covenant to the core of our operations as we bring artists and audiences from many nations across the globe together through our various initiatives and activities. Please take a moment to think of the land you currently reside upon wherever you may be and acknowledge those who went before and those yet to come.

In keeping with our Artistic Policy, the Festival prioritizes works that balance and present unique and new perspectives expressed within the content of the work; cultural, community, and social relevance; a creative approach to form characterized by innovative expression; distinctive style; personal vision; and a practice of crossing aesthetic borders in terms of genre, medium, and emerging content platforms. imagineNATIVE is a Festival that supports the diverse artistic visions and perspectives of Indigenous artists working in the media arts; works selected for programming do not need to have overt Indigenous content or themes. As identified in our mission statement, imagineNATIVE is a charity committed to dispelling stereotypical notions of Indigenous peoples through diverse media presentations from within our communities, thereby contributing to a greater understanding by all audiences of Indigenous artistic expression.

Statement on Programming 04

Founded by Cynthia Lickers-Sage and Vtape with the help of other community partners, imagineNATIVE is now the largest festival of its kind and an international hub for creative excellence and innovation in the media arts. In addition to the Festival, imagineNATIVE also presents year-round programming including: Film + VR Tours, curated screenings with supplementary programming, and residencies. Through the imagineNATIVE Institute professional development opportunities for Indigenous screencontent creators are offered, these programs include: labs, mentorships, and commissions.

The Indigenous media arts community is a small one and we value Indigenous artistic representation within our organization. We believe we cannot disadvantage Indigenous artists who give their time to imagineNATIVE by excluding them from artistic presentation opportunities or prizes, both of which are determined without their input or influence. These artists are eligible to submit their work to the Festival; however, they do not influence programming decisions. In cases where their work is being considered, they are not present for programming discussions and decisions about their work nor do they have input into the scheduling of it. These artists are also eligible for annual prizes. The Festival’s competition is adjudicated by independent juries at arm’s length from the organization.

imagineNATIVE is a registered charity committed to inspiring and connecting communities through original, Indigenous film and media arts.

401 Richmond Street West, Suite 446 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3A8 T: +1 416 585 2333

Charitable Registration #89893 8717 RR0001 To donate, please visit www.imagineNATIVE.org/donate

info@imagineNATIVE.org https://imagineNATIVE.org #imagineNATIVE @imagineNATIVE facebook.com/imagineNATIVE twitter.com/imagineNATIVE youtube.com/imagineNATIVE

ISBN 978-1-9995695-0-1

imagineNATIVE About imagineNATIVE

imagineNATIVE The Land That Sustains Us

imagineNATIVE supports the work of Indigenous media artists including those who give their time, insight, and talent as Board members, staff, contractors, and volunteers of the organization.

Welcome to imagineNATIVE

Table of Contents

Sago/Hello!

Wa’atkwanonhwerá:ton/Welcome..................................................................................................................... 02

Nia:wen/Thank you for your continued support of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

The Land That Sustains Us................................................................................................................................. 04

This year we’ve pulled together a beautiful and thoughtful encapsulation of creative contributions from an array of Indigenous talent. This publication in your hands (or on your screen) has moved away from a wayfinding and catalogue resource to become a collection of thematic written works, illustrations, and acknowledgements to and for those within many creative circles. Our sincerest gratitude to all the filmmakers, artists, curators, friends, and leaders who lent their voices and talents in the formation of this year’s Festival and this publication. I would also like to take this moment to say nia:wen to all of those who carry a piece in making imagineNATIVE what it is, and in particular those involved in getting us to Festival 2021. Thanks to our dedicated staff and board who so generously give their time, hearts, talents, and energy towards the goal of showcasing and celebrating the very best in Indigenous film and media arts. Thank you to our partners, funders, and all our donors for your generosity and support, especially so in these past two years. If you’re reading this and have been a “cousin” to imagineNATIVE, let me say thank you to you as well. We wouldn’t be here without you. Nia:wen + enjoy the 22nd offering of imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Welcome to imagineNATIVE, Naomi Johnson.................................................................................................. 06 Table of Contents................................................................................................................................................. 07 Declaration of Indigenous Cinema.................................................................................................................... 08 FALL CAMP........................................................................................................................................................... 10 A Meditation on Indigenous Summer, by Duke Redbird................................................................................ 12 Fall Camp, by Niki Little....................................................................................................................................... 14 HARVEST............................................................................................................................................................... 18 Programming Committees................................................................................................................................. 20 Official Selection: Audio...................................................................................................................................... 22 Official Selection: Digital + Interactive............................................................................................................... 32 Official Selection: Film + Video........................................................................................................................... 42 GUEST CURATED................................................................................................................................................. 92 JÓVENES INSURGENTES: Cinema of Abya Yala by Francisco Tarque Cañipa................................................ 94 KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program by Jason Baerg + Jessica Lea Fleming................................................. 100 COMMUNITY EXHIBITIONS............................................................................................................................... 106 COMMUNITY..................................................................................................................................................... 116 We Circle Back to Move into the Future, by Dr. Léuli Eshrãghi + Cannupa Hanska Luger ...................... 118 REFLECTION, KAPOW/ONSHORE, by Jason Baerg + Jessica Lea Fleming.................................................... 124

Care Kinstellations, CREATIVE REFLECTIONS by the Indigenous Community ........................................... 126

ECONOMIES....................................................................................................................................................... 130 Indigenous Economies, by Jamie-Lee Reardon.............................................................................................. 132 Seeing the Forest and the Trees, by Jesse Wente.......................................................................................... 140 INNOVATION..................................................................................................................................................... 142 Tools for Survival, by Cheryl L’Hirondelle....................................................................................................... 144 Naomi Johnson Executive Director

Tools for Production, by Suzanne Kite + Scott Benesiinaabandan.............................................................. 145

RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE............................................................................................................................ 150 Sustaining and Gifting the Harvest.................................................................................................................. 152 Awards................................................................................................................................................................ 154 August Schellenberg Award.............................................................................................................................. 158 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................................... 160 WITNESS............................................................................................................................................................. 166 Creative Reflection, by Prestin Fleming-Mercredi.......................................................................................... 168 iN Community + Contributors.......................................................................................................................... 170 2021 imagineNATIVE Staff................................................................................................................................ 176 Thank Yous......................................................................................................................................................... 178

imagineNATIVE Table of Contents

imagineNATIVE About imagineNATIVE

Reflections/Connect, by imagineNATIVE Institute Participants.................................................................... 133

Declaration of Indigenous Cinema

We, the Indigenous screen storytellers, united in this northern corner of our mother, the earth, in a great assembly of wisdom declare to all nations:

Ne í:’I, nè:ne Indigenous Screen Storytellers, nè:ne ohtharè:ke nityonkwè:non, enyakwarihówanahte’ ken’ niyorì:wake:

We glory in our past

Tsyakwè:yahre tsi niyohtòn:ne

When our earth was nurturing our oral traditions of our dreams.

Yonkhiya’tanónnha ne yethi’nihsténha ohwen:tsya tsi ón:ton ayakwariwahsere tsi niyonkwarihó:tens.

When the night sky evoked the visions of our dreams. When the sun and the moon were our parents in our stories told. When storytelling made us all brothers and sisters. When our stories brought forth great chiefs and leaders.

Yakwariwáhseres tsi yakwataté:ken ne etshitewahtsí:’a entyehkè:ne karáhkwa nok yethisótha wenhnì:tare.

When justice was upheld in the stories told.

Ska’nikón:ra wa’akwá:ton sha’tyakwakatatekaratónnyon’.

We will

sha’akwakaratónnyon’ ne ratinyén:te.

Hold and manage Indigenous cultural and intellectual property.

Sha’akwaterihwakwarisyón.

Ensure our continued recognition as primary guardians and interpreters of our culture.

Ne nenyakwátsire

Respect Indigenous individuals and communities.

enyakwarihwanòn:na ne onkwehón:we raotirihwà:ke.

Preserve our traditional knowledge faithfully with sound and image.

Enyakwarihwaní:rate ayakwatkón:tahkwe tsi yakwaterihwanónhstats tsi niyonkwarihò:tens táhnon tsi niyonkwawennò:tens.

Use our skills to communicate with nature and all living things.

enyakhirihwakwennyénhste’ ne ronnonkwehón:we nok raotinakerahsera.

Heal ourselves through screen storytelling.

enyakwatste’ ne teyó:yaks ne ayakwaterihwanónhstate’ onkwehonwenéha.

Preserve and pass on our stories to those not yet born.

enyakwatste’ tsi nahò:ten yonkwaweyentehtá:’on skáhne ayakwanákereke’ ne akwé:kon sha’oyé:ra tsi yonhwentsyà:ke.

We will manage our own destiny and maintain our pride/identity through story.

entsyonkwa’nikonhrí:yohste’ nó:nen tsi yakwakaratónnyons.

Ne ayakwatekaranónhstate’ ne kati enwá:ton ayethikaratónhahse’ ne á:se enhotikonhsatóntye’.

ayakwarihywén:tahkwe’ tsi nahò:ten yonkwateríhonte’ ayakwakaratónnyon’ ne onkwarihwá:ke ne onkwehón:we.

Guovdageaidnu, October 2011

Guovdageaidnu, Kenténha 2011

Written by Asa Simma (Sámi), with support from Darlene Johnson (Dunghutti) and accepted and recognized by the participants of the Indigenous Film Conference in Kautokeino, Sámpi, October 2011.

Yakohyá:ton ne Asa Simma (Sami), yontatehsnyé:non ne Darlene Johnson (Dunghutti) táhnon Indigenous Film Conference ronathonntá:ton. Kautokeinóhne, Sampi, (Kenténha 2011).

Nia:wen/Miikwehc/Thanks to the International Sámi Film Institute for sharing this document in our Festival Book. For more information on the institute, visit https://isfi.no/

Wa’tekhenonhwerá:ton’ ne International Sámi Film Institue tsi wa’akhíyon’ ken’ niyorì:wake. Tókat isewehre sénha í:non aesewayentara’ne’, sewakwátho https://isfi.no/ Translated by Jessica Jamieson (Kanyen'kehá:ka)

imagineNATIVE Declaration of Indigenous Cinema

Yonkhiyehyahrakwén:nis ne yotsistohkwarónnyon tsi nahò:ten wa’onkwatétshen.

Melaw Na

kehk’o, K’i

Tah Amon

gst the Bir

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Fall C amp

imagineNATIVE 2021

FALL CAMP

A Meditation on Indigenous Summer 2021 By Duke Redbird

As a child growing up I would often hear people speak of a time of the year called Indian Summer. I knew they were speaking about a couple of weeks of summer weather that would reappear in the fall. It was associated with the freezing temperatures and the first frost of autumn. I always wondered why that period of beautiful weather was called Indian Summer. I prefer to call it Indigenous Summer. The story goes that Indigenous Summer was regarded by the Indigenous People as a favor or "blessing" from The Great Mystery, Manitou. During this period settlers often heard drumming and singing coming from the Indigenous encampments. In the Indigenous world the return of summer for a couple of weeks was one of celebration and heralded the coming of winter. It was a message from Mother Earth that although she was putting her children in hibernation for the long winter ahead, the Indigenous Summer was a brief respite and a time for hope and celebration; a reminder that the spring and summer would return. I wrote the poem Summer as a metaphor for the shared experience of all humanity. We all have an Indigenous Summer in our future where the happy echoes of our past provide a cause for celebration.

Trevor Solway, De

ar Friend, 2021

shore a psychic emories n o p u d o sto bled m My spirit ke of trou la ing a s s o r and flapp d ac e d k le o r lo u f d n n u A tent s like flags Of season winds of my discon e h In t zing r’s face ga e m m u S And I saw ubliminal horizon vapor Upon my s le, like a gossamer my mind of visib almost in in the deep forests Floating, d e lodg agic looms Love Spun by m er of our t h g u la e nd th as past a skipping like a child Summer w an echo ath Was now e distant garden p ad given me Down som ee what Summer h s around to d e k o lo I And ring s a golden There wa silver of my spirit ilver...the ul And the s turquoise of my so mbrace that e And the imprint of my face e h t lt e f till sed My body s mer's hands cares m u S When and r in the s e g n fi a e ine lik ations And lovesh es of faded convers d an tlin Traced ou elieved were very gr b e That w let go at cannot e leaves h t n o s a e as n th Summer is frost begins to tur ses e as th wing kis And even oking back and blo ind eh She's lo she left b ld r o w e h To t hand es in her s o r h it w eauty uised a golden b olor and thus disg m o r f d n c A another She turns eeks out her lover tant skies S dis gather in s d u lo c d e fill As storm e e's not gon h s t a h t eyes s you ice glazed s, and tell ries She come tears she finds in our memo y in e h n t io s t ws hiberna And melt eeks easy h sun-swept meado s e h s s a ams And even s with you throug uished dre q n n li u e r r e in h S ir streams es her ha And wash er's magic crystal Of Summ e wind kles on th ddle in in r p s e h s that can cu as a pollen blossoms that she h r e m m way u S there are ers have gone their play t a h t s e p flow h to And ho e fall the mpty fields in whic But in th e ly n er finds o h And Summ in my yout r e m m u S th n had know ture my soul in tru I if s p a Perh me to ma her arms t have accompanied ree d e w o ll a d f o An che may n in fields of flowers a t r a e h n The ummer ing with S y la p e il h W

FALL CAMP A Meditation on Indigenous Summer

SUMMER

Fall Camp 2021 By Niki Little

My name is Niki Little and the 2021 Festival is my third serving as Artistic Director. I am Anishininew from Kistiganwacheeng First Nation in northern Manitoba, noosis (granddaughter) of Lucy and Edward Little and granddaughter Leslie and Joyce Peate, of first-generation British on Turtle Island (Canada). I am a person who is actively working towards finding safe pathways to return to Teachings while being mindful of all the disruptions that have impacted moments of cultural transference to me and my kin. Thinking through these notions of wayfinding, I notice that I sit and work within the how. It’s in that space where process turns into knowledge, while simultaneously reflecting back onto itself and moving forward. It is a process of active witnessing that names roles and responsibilities within Indigenous continuums. My time at imagineNATIVE has been learning in the how; a multi-dimensional, non-linear exposure to a plurality of Indigenous ways of collaborating, growing, and valuing. It is from these experiences I have seen the power of our stories and our continued insistence—we, as Indigenous Peoples, determine our own sense of autonomy in a global space. It is in that thought Fall Camp has been percolating.

Narrative flows from place When light meets shadow

Every year we gather in Tkaronto (Toronto) for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, centring Indigenous artists and brilliance through moving images and media transmissions. For six days the Festival is a collective and creative occupation that trails the fall equinox, a time of movement, harvesting, and gratitude. It is firmly established as an Indigenous community site, holding responsibility of our stories while reaffirming our relationality between many Indigenous Nations.

Multiple exposures Multi-dimensional

Fall Camp functions as an Indigenous curatorial strategy as well as a metaphor for the Festival. Historically, my family were bush people: in tune with the seasons, guided by the land. Nidada (my dad) told me that every fall, we would gather at this big rock in our territory with surrounding communities to eat, socialize, trade, and distribute the harvest. Collectively, these actions revealed explorations of Indigenous resurgence practices while nourishing our culture. In many ways this story reminded me of core praxis at the Festival. A landscape transformed into a cultural site. When we—Indigenous Peoples—gather, we mobilize our ways of being presently and collectively. At the root, our stories Our lives.

Our voices. Our interests.

HARVEST Seeds of story have grown over the season into films, podcasts, soundscapes, video games, augmented reality, virtual reality, and 360 videos. Nurtured by Indigenous hands, the works presented at the Festival convey relationships to the land and give way to intersections between culture, humans, and nature through the harvest. Fall Camp reflects on Indigenous cosmology that is grounded in land-based perspectives projecting an active admission of kinship that extends beyond the human world. The audience bears witness to these narratives which in turn requires them to hold space respecting the value within the transmissions. Returning to and cultivating a relationship with the land brings forth social issues and realities to feasibly return to Indigenous territories and homelands. Themes that are touched upon in the harvest are futurity, resurgence, sustainability, reciprocity, and innovation, reinforcing the seasonal essence of circulating experiences that reinforce an international, Indigenous infrastructure supporting our lives through an Indigenous lens. At the 2021 Festival, HARVEST consists of 154 works from Indigenous artists from around the world. The Official Selection includes 112 of those works which span Audio (18), Digital + Interactive (14), and Film + Video (80). Through collaboration with guest curators (3) and artist-run centres (6), our networks extend throughout Turtle Island, Abya Yala, and the Great Ocean.

Our communities An endurance of narrative

ECONOMIES The notion of economies within Fall Camp are primarily occurring within Industry Days and Indigenous Digital Development Day during the Festival. imagineNATIVE’s Institute, both in Film and Digital + Interactive mediums, presents versions of contemporary Indigenous economies that are growing through valuing sustainable and ethical processes. Traditional Indigenous economies could be considered hunting, foraging, harvesting, and trade.

FALL CAMP Fall Camp

The films, audio, and media works transform into the HARVEST that brings the COMMUNITY together to share and celebrate the gifts of the land by our hands. Generative exchange and capacity building are apparent through imagineNATIVE’s Institute, Industry Days, and Indigenous Digital Development Day, like contemporary forms of INDIGENOUS ECONOMIES where community is deeply valued. And finally, in preparation for the deep rest of winter, we gather to give back, honouring RECIPROCITY between our connections in GRATITUDE to bear WITNESS to the present future.

In this context of Indigenous economies, I locate Indigenous knowledge and relationship to land as a foundation and a starting point. I assert that these economies do not need to exist within the binaries of traditional versus contemporary and capital versus subsistence. Economies at the Festival aim to consider the significance of Indigenous economic systems in present-day society through film and media art.

Traditional, local, and customary frames of reference are foundational to Indigenous economies. Resources and their availability are dependent and guided by the seasonal cycles and encompass intricate approaches that include essential economic, social, cultural, and spiritual elements. At the centre, nourishment and subsistence is honoured, for the artists and communities involved and the preservation of cultural insight. A subsequent result of these structures is the development of an extended social network linked together by associations, contributions, and responsibilities. We have witnessed activism and protest, we have reclaimed and claimed, we have seen the fight, and now we organize with purpose and efficiency through peer-to-peer exchange and mentorship. Indigenous filmmakers and media artists work within land and community-based frameworks that integrate intergenerational technologies, language, and teachings, impacting and disrupting capitalistic power systems. Recognizing the opportunity to merge our history of amplifying our stories with, through, and as part of our mobilization strategies—we are stronger. We enact visual sovereignty by equipping ourselves with knowledge, sharing our stories to our advantage, and by choice as we claim space as the global majority and culturally rich.

It is in this way I welcome you to Fall Camp.

Beginning of time of as memory serves Create a storied landscape.

Miikwehc to our artists and communities both familial and chosen who contribute to our voice and strength. Chi-miigwetch to everyone at imagineNATIVE and our contributors for leaning into this publication with curiosity and care. I am honoured to collaborate and share space with you all. It is in the moments of vulnerability, tension, and deep listening that my heart fills with radical joy and love.

Niki Little

FALL CAMP Fall Camp by Niki Little

Land as witness Water as witness Storied landscape

Deep witnessing and care are at the heart of Fall Camp. This Festival makes the choice to engage with the community in a mindful way. Focusing on Indigenous community, stories, languages, economies, and the natural world at the onset of the work allows the Festival to be part of the conversation between artists, community members, and the land without a set outcome. It creates space for open dialogue around the current state of the world, Indigenous environmental issues and land rights, gender, technology, and subsistence approaches speaking directly to our audiences. Filmmakers and media arts practioners are holding space through sage embodiment practices to tell stories in safe and responsible ways. No longer are we defined by the traumas we carry, but instead by finding care in the healing we tend to. The lens in which we view the work at the Festival focuses on generative manners and opportunities to discuss Indigenous futures. Time and land, more specifically notions of Indigenous time and relationships to land, become apparent throughout the Festival. Fall Camp is an Indigenous methodology that incorporates land, culture, and community to create an artistic occupation that disrupts and challenges Western structures because it considers Indigenous priorities at the onset, speaking to our kin which has the power to cause revolutionary change.

Name

Mary Menie Mark, Inniun ueshkat mak anutshish, 2020

CHIRAPAQ,

Sara Mama

(Sacred Seed

), 2019

H arv est

imagineNATIVE 2021

HARVEST Programming Committees

Programming Committees Film + Video Programming Committees are composed of filmmakers, artists, and curators. They work to provide additional perspectives on individual titles, overarching themes, and the programming structure. For the 2021 Festival, imagineNATIVE’s Artistic Director, Niki Little, collaborated with Scott Benesiinaabandan to select the Digital + Interactive works and with Siku Allooloo, Jaene Castrillon, and Jennifer Smith to oversee the selection of the films.

Niki Little is a mother, artist/observer, arts administrator, and a founding member of The Ephemerals with Jaimie Isaac and Jenny Western who were long-listed twice for the Sobey Art Award (2017/2019). She is Anishininew/ British from Kistiganwacheeng First Nation. Her interests investigate Indigenous womxn, kinship, and community-based initiatives and economies. Niki has been the Artistic Director at imagineNATIVE since 2019.

Jaene F. Castrillon is an interdisciplinary artist who explores their relationship to the world through the Indigenous teachings of Elder Isaac Day of Serpent River First Nations and the wisdom of the land. Jaene identifies as a TwoSpirit, mixed race (Indigenous Colombian/Hong Kong Chinese), Trans person of colour living with disabilities (physical, cognitive, and psychiatric). Jaene believes in sharing the brilliance and heartbreak of living a life less ordinary.

Digital + Interactive Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinaabe from Obishkokaang. Scott is an intermedia artist that currently works in experimental image making and sonic materials. His current research interests are intersections of artificial intelligence and Anishinaabemowin. Scott has completed international residencies at Parramatta Artist Studios in Australia, Context Gallery in Derry, Northern Ireland, and the University of Lethbridge/Royal Institute of Technology (iAIR) residency, along with international collaborative projects in both the UK and Ireland. In Canada, Scott has completed residencies with the Initiative for Indigenous Futures and AbTeC in Montréal.

Jennifer Lee Smith is a Métis curator, writer, and arts administrator from Treaty One Territory. She works as the Executive Director for the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition, alongside her practise as an independent curator and arts writer. Jennifer’s research focuses on exploring the ways we make things, ranging from traditional methods of making to exploring new digital technologies that tell our stories. In 2018, Jennifer was the Indigenous Curator in Residence at aceartinc. in Winnipeg and most recently co-curated the exhibition Sovereign Intimacies with Nasrin Himada for Gallery 1C03.

HARVEST Programming Committees

Siku Allooloo is an Inuk/Haitian/Taíno interdisciplinary artist, artistic producer, and community builder from Denendeh (Northwest Territories), now based in Whitehorse, Yukon. Siku is an accomplished writer and artist, specializing in poetry, multimedia, decolonial advocacy, and most recently, film. Siku is a programmer with Available Light Film Festival and is the first Indigenous Artist in Residence at the Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society (Vancouver, British Columbia).

Official Selection: Audio

Song, story, and sound-making are ancestral practices that carry knowledge, speak to experiences, and craft worldviews continually evolving our cultures. With the introduction of radio, Indigenous artists have been actualizing sonic narrative sovereignty and creating new spaces and opportunities for Indigenous audio storytellers to share their work with broad audiences. imagineNATIVE aims to amplify these creations to our audiences through the Festival.

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Working within activism, community, politics, and continuance, this year’s collection of works instigates pathways toward the transformation of inherited oppression, shifting toward fully rounded, ancestral embodiment. They engage in community-based methodologies that reflect their cultural epistemologies, self-determination, and inherited knowledge.

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Falen Johnson, How Indigenous People Are Promoting and Learning Their Languages, 2021

Canada 2021 71 min English Audio, Non-Fiction Canadian Premiere

Directors Kerry Goring (Afro-Caribbean) Patty Krawec (Anishnaabe)

Canada 2020 52 min English/Mohawk Audio, Non-Fiction

Medicine for the Resistance: Global Indigeneity

The Aunties Dandelion Podcast Sky Woman Was Pushed

With Sámi academic Troy Storfjell and Black Lakota writer Joy Henderson, Global Indigeneity discusses our relationships with colonialism and how we exist in both resistance to and refusal of the colonial world that seeks to define us.

The Aunties introduce themselves and discuss how their exuberant interpretation of Sky Woman’s story was met with a surprising reaction, and what that reaction says about the journey they are meant to take as Aunties. Also, Karenna'onwe sings.

Sensuality coach and one half of the podcast Medicine for the Resistance, Kerry Goring lives out her passion for supporting healing for people of colour with a direct focus on the epigenetic, sexual trauma that has been experienced by melanated people. Patty Krawec is an Anishnaabe/Ukrainian activist, co-host of the podcast Medicine for the Resistance, and host of the online book club Ambe: A year of Indigenous reading.

Karenna'onwe, Dr. Karen Hill, is a Mohawk physician from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Hill completed medical school in 2003 and her family medicine residency in 2005, both from McMaster University. Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore is a Mohawk independent filmmaker, lecturer, artist, and educator. Moore focuses on restoring spiritual, physical, and economic balance at the place where Indigenous ways of being meet our modern experience.

Canada 2021 4 min Sm'algya?x/English Audio, Sound Art World Premiere

Director Edzi'u Loverin (Tahltan/Taku River Tlingit)

Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore (Kanien'kéha:ka/Mohawk)

USA/New Zealand 2021 11 min English Audio, Non-Fiction World Premiere

Can You Introduce Yourself in the Language Can You Introduce Yourself in the Language speaks to Indigenous language learners’ barriers in a colonial context. Edzi’u is a Two-Spirit Tahltan and inland Tlingit sound and media artist, songwriter, and composer. Edzi’u earned a Degree in Music Composition at Vancouver Community College in 2019.

hā/shəli? (Breath/Life) hā/shƏli? is a journey through the many layers of self-manifestation as Indigenous trans people, centred on the movements or energy of trans embodiment by listening more deeply to our elemental ancestors. Rafael/a Luna-Pizano is a mover and writer. He is an instrument—learning ancestral traditions by listening to his bakla body. Raven Two Feathers is a Two-Spirit, Emmy award-winning creator growing and exploring with the people they meet and the stories that guide them.

Directors Rafael/a Luna-Pizano (Ilocano/Visaya/Xicano) Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/Comanche)

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Directors Dr. Karenna'onwe Karen Hill (Kanien'kéha:ka/Mohawk)

Canada 2021 54 min English Audio, Non-Fiction World Premiere

Host

Falen Johnson (Mohawk/Tuscarora)

Canada 2021 7 min English/Mi’kmaq Audio, Fiction World Premiere

How Indigenous People Are Promoting and Learning Their Languages On Unreserved, we hear from language learners across Turtle Island who are promoting their language and helping make it more accessible to people who want to learn. Falen Johnson is a Mohawk and Tuscarora writer, dramaturge, director, and actor. She is the co-host of CBC Podcasts’ The Secret Life of Canada and guest host of CBC Radio’s Unreserved for the 2020/21 season.

Poor Tom is a fictional story about a woman dealing with the aftermath of the racist attacks in Mi'kma'ki last year over the broken Peace and Friendship Treaty concerning fishing for a moderate livelihood. Lisa Nasson is a Mi'kmaw actor, director, and storyteller from Nova Scotia. She studied acting at George Brown College in Toronto and Classical Theatre with the Birmingham Conservatory at the Stratford Festival.

Canada 2021 43 min English Audio, Fiction International Premiere

Canada 2021 10 min Nuxalk/English Audio, Non-Fiction Ontario Premiere

Director Corrine Jo Edgar (Nuxalk)

Director Lisa Nasson (Mi'kmaw)

Life's Circle of Creations Corrine Jo Edgar shares audio clips of the journey walking the red road. An introduction to Edgar’s teachings and how they play a significant role in their life and how they can be shared and taught to the viewer. Corrine Jo Edgar is an emerging sound artist and has always been fascinated with the creation of audio and one’s relationship to sound, music, and films.

NDNs on the Airwaves: Comedy Podcast Pilot NDNs on the Airwaves: Comedy Podcast Pilot is the first audio story about a struggling Rez Radio station managed by a distracted, fashion-minded, young, Indigenous woman who just wants to get off the Reservation. Janet Rogers began working as a visual artist and writer in 1996. She now lives on the Six Nations reserve where she is launching a book press, Ojistah Publishing, and a Six Nations Inaugural Literary Award.

Director Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora)

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Heartbeat of Poor Tom

Canada 2020 22 min English Audio, Fiction

Director Jennifer Murrin (Mi’kmaw)

Restor(y)ing Identity

STARPATH

This story tells of Crawford seeing a sabawealnu, Eela, one day while checking his fishing nets. It uncovers the importance of intergenerational knowledge transmission and what could happen if we forget to tell our stories.

An Inuk woman, in a poetic journey across cosmos and landscape, comes back into orbit from colonial disruption with renewed force and a vision of healing.

Jennifer Murrin is a queer, mixed Mi’kmaw/Settler, multidisciplinary artist from Bay of Islands, Newfoundland, residing in Toronto. Murrin is a two-time National Poetry Slam Champion and a member of Seeds & Stardust Poetry Collective.

Siku Allooloo is an interdisciplinary artist, emerging filmmaker, and community builder from Denendeh (Northwest Territories), based now in Whitehorse, Yukon, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Canada 2021 48 min English Audio, Non-Fiction World Premiere

Canada 2021 60 min English/Anishinaabe Audio, Non-Fiction

Director Tanya Talaga (Anishinaabe)

Director Siku Allooloo (Inuk/Haitian Taíno)

Spirit to Soar: Where We Come From - The Podcast Elder Sam Achneepineskum has witnessed four disruptions to Indigenous ways of life. Starting with the arrival of settlers, overlapping, and how two clashing viewpoints about the natural world began to throw things out of balance and what is needed to restore unity. Tanya Talaga is an award-winning and nominated author, public speaker, producer, director, journalist, and storyteller. Talaga founded Makwa Creative Inc., a production company focused on amplifying Indigenous voices through documentary films, television, and podcasts.

Dene Talk: Resilience In Episode 1: Resilience, we hear from two Indigenous women. Shayli Robinson is a twenty-something Indiqueer burlesque dancer and community worker in her nation of Lyackson. Gwen Villebrun is a registered psychologist and PhD candidate (and also Cassidy's auntie!). Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas is of Dehcho Dene, Métis, and Baltic European ancestry. He is the creator and host of Dene Talk. Cassidy also works at CFUV 101.9 FM at the National Campus and the Community Radio Association Board of Directors.

Director Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas (Dehcho Dene)

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Canada 2021 7 min English Audio, Fiction

Canada 2021 14 min English Audio, Fiction World Premiere

Director Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora)

Canada 2020 55 min English Audio, Non-Fiction

The Battle Within

Warrior Life Podcast: Defund the Police

The Battle Within is a sonic memoir and coming-into-one’s-own story using found sounds, field recordings, archived compositions, and vocalizations expressing personal and universal phases of evolution and expansions.

Episode 58 of the Warrior Life Podcast: Defund the Police provides an overview of the widespread, systemic anti-Indigenous racism by police in Canada discussing rates of racial profiling, brutality, over-arresting, over-charging, and policeinvolved deaths of Indigenous peoples.

Janet Rogers began working as a visual artist and writer in 1996. She now lives on the Six Nations reserve where she is initiating a book press, Ojistah Publishing, and a Six Nations Inaugural Literary Award.

Pamela Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, educator, and content creator from Eel River Bar First Nation. She produces and hosts Warrior Life Podcast advancing Native sovereignty, resistance, and decolonization.

Canada 2020 16 min English Audio, Non-Fiction

Director Pamela Palmater (Mi’kmaw)

Canada 2021 11 min Nuxalk/English Audio, Non-Fiction Ontario Premiere

Warrior Kids Podcast: The Boy and the Whale

Who feeds you: A consideration for Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Season 2, episode 6 Warrior Kids Podcast: The Boy and the Whale is an adaptation of a traditional Mi'kmaw story about a boy and a whale; a story told by Mi'kmaw Elders for generations. The story is about Ni'kmaq, which means family.

In Who feeds you: A consideration for Indigenous Food Sovereignty discussions with Skookum Xlhalh ti Nan (Kyle Tallio) redefine how we crucially view food from personal relationships and past and present connections with food.

Pamela Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, educator, and content creator from Eel River Bar First Nation. She produces and hosts Warrior Kids Podcast which is a celebration of everything Indigenous.

Skookum Xlhalh ti Nan is a fourth generation Nuxalk artist. When he isn’t creating, he is out on the land sharing experiences and knowledge with his family, as well as cooking and sharing meals.

Director Skookum Xlhalh ti Nan (Nuxalk)

HARVEST Official Selection: Audio

Director Pamela Palmater (Mi’kmaw)

Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

Last year, the world seemingly ground to a halt. Everything—and somehow, nothing—changed.

As contemporary Indigenous peoples, we have once again become a portrait of resilience and growth; these last eighteen months have not been spent in stagnation. For many Indigenous artists this has been a period of incubation, reflection, and renegotiation of praxis. As an organization, we are growing in the same way. Originating as a simple category for new media submissions to imagineNATIVE, Digital + Interactive has become a core component of our Festival programming, steadily expanding to include year-round activities. In 2019, D + I had its first in person exhibition during the Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Today, D + I comprises the iNdigital Youth Collective, conference delegations, a summer game jam, a residency, Indigenous Digital Development Day (IDDD), and a comprehensive web-based platform with virtual exhibitions on the iNdigital Space. Much of this change has taken place during the pandemic, and we plan to continue modelling growth through ethical and sustainable means. As digital creatives, our lives are already so enmeshed in these virtual spaces. Having already been in the “tradition” of pushing both media and convention, Indigenous artists were uniquely prepared for a massive virtual shift. As always, new technologies are essentially tools for expression, connection, and creation. Community is our lifeblood, and we continue to find new ways to bridge connective gaps. After all, “Indian Country” has never been site specific. In considering the virtual-as-place, the largest hurdle is conceptual. Inorganic does not strictly apply to the digital: we make these experiences from Indigenous lenses, using technology made from, bound to, and in relation with the earth.

Thirza Cuthand, Bipolar Journey, 2021

We are incredibly proud to present this year’s Digital + Interactive Official Selection, which includes VR, 360 video, video games, and digital media. Each of these works speaks to time, place, and connection, using digital media in diverse applications as vehicles for affect. This year, and into the future, we will continue to challenge the boundaries between the land and the virtual. This is the second year of our fully online programming. We’ve collectively put in the work to pivot, troubleshoot, and find balance through this transition; now we strive to bring you excellence in terms of format, accessibility, and creativity. When we can gather safely again, we won’t forget this period of change. None of this has been a bad dream. Instead, it’s an exercise in the possibilities of digital experiences, and a wake-up call for active cultural negotiation in the digital realm. While COVID-19 has been the impetus for a cultural reset, it is up to us to determine which new paradigms take root, acting as leaders for positive change in the digital milieu.

Melissa Johns Digital + Interactive Coordinator

HARVEST Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

USA 2021 Interactive Web

USA 2019 360 Video

Artist Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/ Comanche)

A Strong Fire

We ride with a young trans person from home to surgery, surrounded by the anxieties and love of family recognizing a young person coming into adulthood on their own terms.

A Strong Fire contains an interactive narrative, eight words in Oneida, and two minigames: a match 3 game and a memory game, to reinforce the vocabulary.

Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/Comanche) (he/they) is a Two-Spirit, Emmy award-winning creator, growing and exploring with the people they meet and the stories that guide them.

Dr. Wendi Sierra (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin) is an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University. Her work involves both scholarly publications on games, learning, representation, and game design/production.

Canada 2021 Digital Media

Artist Kennlin Barlow (Mi'kmaw)

Artist Wendi Sierra (Oneida)

Canada 2021 Video Game

A Place Called Home/The Wind

Bipolar Journey

A meditative image of light dancing along a snowy landscape.

A floating head journies through the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, cycling through depressions, manias, a psych ward stay, and ending in a park where they must remain stable enough to get a hotdog.

A filmmaker from Indian Island First Nations, Kennlin has had a passion for cinema since they were 5 years old. They’ve been heavily involved in the industry for nearly 10 years.

Since 1995 Thirza Cuthand has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity and love, and Indigeneity which have screened in festivals and galleries internationally.

Artist Thirza Cuthand (Plains Cree/Scottish)

HARVEST Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

A Drive to Top Surgery

Canada 2021 360 Video

Canada 2021 Video Game

Artist Dallas Flett-Wapash (Ininew/Seaulteax)

Ri’ken:’a (my younger brother)

Pay your bills in Crappy Home Designer, an Animal Crossing parody, where you must pay your loans on time! Stay on track or face the “fun” consequences.

Ri’ken:’a (my younger brother) is an autobiographical short captured in 360: two siblings break from the isolation of quarantine, if only for a short time.

Dallas Flett-Wapash is an Ininew/Seaulteax digital artist working with video game design, expanded reality, and interactive technologies. His practice is an ongoing reconstruction of his cultural identity—cosmology, culture, language, and lifestyle— using video game aesthetics.

Melissa Johns is a multimedia visual artist and educator from a mixed Mohawk (Turtle Clan) and French Canadian background. Melissa uses interdisciplinary methods to collect, preserve, and transform fragments of the stories around her.

Dave Whitehead (Māori)

Melissa Johns (Kanien'kéha/French Canadian)

Canada 2021 Digital Media

New Zealand 2021 Virtual Reality

Artists Kat Lintott (Māori (Nagai Tahu))

Artist

Rangi Tuwhera (Open Skies)

Dream Reunion

Rangi Tuwhera offers a glimpse into the world of Taonga Pāoro, traditional Māori musical instruments. Hold a taonga in your hand as its mythology and voice unfold around you.

These twelve stills capture a dream-reunion with my grandfather back home in the East.

Kat Lintott (Ngāi Tahu) is passionate about using new technology and creative platforms to empower people in the real world to have a positive impact on themselves and their community. New Zealand born sound designer and composer Dave Whitehead has been involved with sound design for film and television for over 30 years.

Nadine Leclerc is a BFA student in her final year at York University. She has over ten years experience working as a multimedia and web designer in Toronto.

Artist Nadine Chantal Marie Leclerc (Mi'kmaw)

HARVEST Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

Crappy Home Designer

Kahkiyaw kâtahkotanânaw

Canada 2021 Digital Media

Exhibited at the Indigenous Peoples Experience in Fort Edmonton Park, this short musical film combines powerful visual imagery and original songs to express the springtime of Indigenous resurgence. Artists

Barry Bilinsky is a professional theatre creator of Cree, Métis, and Ukrainian heritage. Barry is committed to developing safe, authentic, respectful creations that challenge overarching cultural assumptions faced in the performing arts community. Multidisciplinary Métis artist Moe Clark is a nomadic songbird with wings woven from circle singing and spoken word. She creates sonic landscapes of layered voices that invite audiences into a trance-like space.

Barry Bilinsky (Cree/Métis)

Juno nominated Cris Derksen is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. In a world where almost everything — people, music, cultures — gets labelled and slotted into simple categories, Cris Derksen represents a challenge. Based out of Los Angeles, Jade Ehlers divides his time working as a creative manager and creative director for a diverse catalog of artists and songwriters.

Moe Clark (Métis)

Cris Derkson (North Tall Cree)

HARVEST Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

Jade Ehlers (Westbank First Nation)

Canada 2021 Digital Media

Canada 2021 Virtual Reality

Artist Melissa Johns (Kanien'kéha/French Canadian)

The Seven Sacred Laws

The Docks is a fabricated space: an incarnation of longing and otherness, a resting place for old wounds. Sit here for as long as you need. Listen and yearn. Watch the dark horizon until you disappear.

The Seven Sacred Laws is a colourful and imaginative animated web series that follows a young boy on a vision quest where he learns valuable lessons from seven sacred animals.

Erica Daniels is Cree/Ojibway from Peguis First Nation. She is a proud mother, a multi-award winning documentary filmmaker and the owner of Kejic Productions.

Haudenosaunee 2021 Video Game

Canada 2021 Digital Media

Artist Carrie Allison (Nêhiýaw (Cree)/Métis/European)

Artist Erica Daniels (Cree/Ojibway)

The Pull of the Moon

Thousands of Bushels of Corn

This installation is an experimentation combining beadwork, animation, and video exploring the connection that has always existed between landscape and beadwork.

In 1779, President George Washington ordered a scorched earth campaign against the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, destroying thousands of bushels of corn. A Tuscarora artist visualizes this destruction using video game technology.

Carrie Allison, a Nêhiýaw/Cree, Métis, and European descendent, is a visual artist based in K’jipuktuk. She is an active member of the arts community and Co-Chair of the Eyelevel Artist Run Centre Board.

Waylon Wilson is a citizen of the Tuscarora Nation focused on re-storying Indigenous history and issues in multiple media platforms. He builds interactive, intergenerational digital spaces for elder and youth play.

Artist Waylon Wilson (Tuscarora)

HARVEST Official Selection: Digital + Interactive

The Docks

Official Selection: Film + Video

The stories within Harvest describe a larger infrastructure that underpins our contemporary lives as Indigenous Peoples, circulating our experience through creative simulations. What is exposed is our relationship to epistemological teachings and strategies of the good mind toward continued insistence and resistance that is reflective of the communities they stem from. The creative simulations presented at the 2021 Festival deepen our relationship from the beginning as oral stories serve to inform intentions of how to be read or contemporized. We will celebrate the Harvest with over 145 works from artists representing 51 Indigenous nations giving voice to over 26 Indigenous languages. Opening the Festival is Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The Festival closes with Iwianch, el Diablo Venado, a documentary feature by José Cardoso. Futurity, language, and land are ongoing threads throughout Programming which includes 18 feature films and 7 short film programs grounded in the 7 directions of the medicine wheel. The work begins to reveal there is something so dynamic happening, a tide of Indigenous innovation and expression that is shifting the cultural landscape.

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

We are truly honoured to collaborate and tend to these stories, and hope that you deep dive into their narratives.

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Woodrow Hunt, Faces, Displays, and Other Imaginary Things, 2020

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

USA 2021 5 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Director Angela Gladue (Nehiyaw (Cree))

Australia 2021 15 min English Documentary Short International Premiere SOUTH

ᐃᑐᐦᑌᐃᐧᐣ itohtêwin (Goal of Journey or Destination) Honouring ancestors of past, present, and future, this video is a tribute to those whose spirits dance on through the stars. We will always remember our loved ones and those whose lives were tragically stolen by ongoing acts of colonial violence. Angela Miracle Gladue is a Nehiyaw (Cree) interdisciplinary artist specializing in dance, fashion, performance, and film. She is from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) and is a proud member of Frog Lake First Nation.

Chris Collard had his eighteenth birthday in juvenile detention. Battling childhood trauma and substance abuse, he made a vow to stop his cycle of imprisonment. Five years later, he was a Kickboxing World Champion. An honest portrait of passion grounded in love and healing.

Producer Brooke Woolcock (Ballardong/Whadjuk Noongar)

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Canada 2021 42 min English Documentary Medium World Premiere WEST

Canada 2021 11 min English Documentary Short North American Premiere NORTH

Steven Davies (Snuneymuxw/European-Canadian)

Gary Hamaguchi (Jaru/Noongar/Japanese)

Gary Hamaguchi is a Japanese/Aboriginal Jaru/Noongar man from Broome. His passion for film began at an early age. As an emerging screenwriter/director, he was selected to participate in the Black Comedy, Season 3 writers’ workshop for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Director/Producer

Director

ƛaʔuukʷiatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht) (Dugout Canoe) Master carver and land defender Joe Martin reconciles his past as a logger by revitalizing the ancestral knowledge and artistic practice of the traditional Tla-o-qui-aht dugout canoe. Steven Thomas Davies is a Coast Salish (Snuneymuxw First Nation/EuropeanCanadian) filmmaker who was born and raised in the traditional territories of the Lekwungen speaking Peoples (now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt), W̱ SÁNEĆ, and the Salish Sea.

Adaawk Directed, produced, and told by family members along the Highway of Tears, this film is beautifully shot, reverent, and uplifting, showing us the raising of the commemoration healing totem pole in Kitsumkalum, Tsimshian Territory. Lorna Brown (Wet'suwet'en) is a first-time filmmaker. She brings a sense of empathy and compassion to her first film, Adaawk.

Director/Producer Lorna Brown (We'suwet'en)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Aboriginal Warrior

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Greenland 2021 12 min Greenlandic w English subtitles Dramatic Short World Premiere SOUTH

Director Aka Hansen (Inuk) Producers Aka Hansen (Inuk) Mia Biilmann Larsen (Inuk/Kalaaleq)

Greenland 2021 77 min Greenlandic w English subtitles Dramatic Feature World Premiere

Ajornavianngilatit (You'll be okay) A mother who has dedicated her life to her child and working hard for her family goes out for a night of fun and meets someone special. Aka Hansen is a multiple award-winning Inuk filmmaker based in Nuuk, Greenland.

Akornatsinniittut – Kiinappaplik (Among us – The masked man)

Director/Producer Marc Fussing Rosbach (Inuk)

Akornatsinniittut – Kiinappalik covers the adventures of Mio and Nukappi as they bond and grow together at the same orphanage. Their brotherhood is evident as they grow into young men being trained by the local shaman. They face their biggest enemy, Kiinappalik, who commits murder to further their cause. It is up to Nukappi, with the help of Mio, to find out what Kiinappalik wants. By facing their greatest fears, will they be able to stop Kiinappalik or be swallowed by the darkness? Marc Fussng Rosbachs (Inuk) is a self-taught, emerging talent from Greenland. As an independent filmmaker, he has worked on feature films, short films, music videos, and trailers.

Friday, October 22, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Canada 2021 18 min English w Inuktitut Subtitles Documentary Short Ontario Premiere NORTH

Director/Producer Lindsay McIntyre (Inuk/Scottish)

Canada 2021 21 min Inuktitut w English Subtitles Dramatic Short BELOW

Ajjigiingiluktaaqtugut (We Are All Different) What does it mean to be Inuk? Historically depicted as welcoming and friendly people in remote, snowy landscapes, in reality, Inuit live across the globe. McIntyre asks what it means to belong in a changing world when our ideas of Inuk-ness are so tied to particular representations. Lindsay McIntyre is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist of Inuit and settler Scottish descent. Working with 16mm film using experimental and handmade techniques, her short films circle themes of portraiture, place, form, and personal histories.

Angakusajaujuq (The Shaman’s Apprentice) A potent, mysterious glimpse into a young shaman’s journey as she travels to the underworld to find the answer to healing an ill community member. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, she must trust her grandmother’s teachings and learn to control her fear. Zacharias Kunuk is a highly acclaimed director of more than 30 Inuit documentaries and feature films, including Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001 Cannes Camera d’Or). Angakusajaujuq is his first stop motion animation film.

Director & Writer Zacharius Kunuk (Inuk) Producers Zacharius Kunuk (Inuk) Nadia Mike (Inuk)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Sunday, October 24, 2021 Canada 2021 39 min English/Cree w English subtitles Documentary Short Ontario Premiere CENTRE

Director Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand (Wendat) Producer Floyd Favel (Nehiyaw)

Ashes and Embers Ashes and Embers documents the stories of survivors who were at the Thunderchild (St. Henri) Indian Residential School when it burned down. Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand is a visual artist from Tiotià:ke/Teotia'yih/Mooniyang/ Montréal. She is a detribalized Wendat and also Quebecoise and Peruvian.

Beans Saturday, October 23, 2021

Winner of two Canadian Screen Awards (Best Motion Picture and Best First Feature Film), Beans is the incredible coming of age story of a Mohawk girl set during the 1990 Oka Crisis.

Canada 2021 3 min English Music Video World Premiere REVERBERATE

Inspired by Mohawk director Tracey Deer’s own experience of surviving the crisis as a twelve-year-old girl, this beautiful, raw, and powerful film bears witness to a young Mohawk as she navigates the emotional landscape of adolescence in tandem with the volatility of the armed conflict. We witness the Oka Crisis through the eyes of this tender-hearted, young girl as she is propelled through danger and the stark reality of racial injustice, having to grow up very fast. We see her look to those around her for models of strength and warriorhood and ultimately, to her version within herself. Gorgeously filmed, performed, and directed, this film is a tremendous must-see. Born and raised in the community of Kahnawá:ke, Tracey Deer is a highly esteemed and multiple award-winning Mohawk director, producer, writer, mentor, speaker, and leader.

Director Justin Ducharme (Métis) Musical Artist Edzi'u (Tahltan/Taku River Tlingit)

Celebration Celebration is the latest music video from Two-Spirit, Tahltan, and inland Tlingit sound artist, songwriter, and composer Edzi'u. The video is a companion piece that imagines a dreamlike diptych of a personal celebration bath. Celebration is a cleansing, a stepping into power, a surrendering. Justin Ducharme is a Métis filmmaker, writer, dancer, and curator. His curatorial efforts have been shown at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, ReelOut Fest, SUM Gallery, and grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen.

Canada 2020 92 min English Dramatic Feature Drive-In

Director Tracey Deer (Mohawk) Writers Tracey Deer (Mohawk) Meredith Vuchnich

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Canada 2021 81 min English/French/Anishinaabemowin w English Subtitles Dramatic Feature

Director Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe) Producer Catherine Chagnon

Mani, a master’s student, returns to the reserve in northern Quebec, where she grew up. Resolved to reintegrate into the community, she gets involved in the debate around a referendum on allowing the free sale of alcohol on the reserve. Laura, a bootlegger, pockets the profits she makes under the protection of the band council and her partner Raymond, who is still angry with Mani, whom he holds responsible for the death of his daughter. Opposing forces quickly divide the community into two sides that face each other to determine the best path to independence.

Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist of Algonquin ancestry from Outaouais, Quebec. Her first feature film entitled Bootlegger was selected for both CineMart and the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2016. Following her residency in Paris, she won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival 2017, an award granted by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) and the Cinéfondation.

Mo'ui Faingata'a (Brutal Lives) The moving story of a fallen hero who returns home after twenty years to face both his past and the ancient spirit who is coming to collect on a family curse. In this first ever bilingual, English/Tongan language drama series (which is also the film shown here), former prize-fighter, Soane “The Shark” Valu, reluctantly returns to South Auckland to bury his beloved father. A ghost of the man he once was and haunted by the vengeful spirit of an ancestor warrior, Soane struggles to overcome his great shame and regain the acceptance of his now adult children. Further complicating matters, the spirit of his late father has warned that the curse is headed for Soane’s daughter, so he must try everything to protect her. Following in her father’s footsteps, though wanting nothing to do with him, Lupe is on the verge of a defining boxing match that brings all to a head.

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 64 min English/Tongan w English Subtitles Dramatic Feature Canadian Premiere

Director/Writer

Vela Manusaute is an award-winning writer, director, playwright, and performer. He is also one of the directors in the acclaimed Teine Sā contemporary horror series, based on supernatural legends from across the Pacific Islands.

Vela Manusaute (Niuean/Sāmoan)

Executive Producer Pierre Even Associate Producer Sheldon McGregor (Anishinaabe)

Producer/Writer Sandra Kailahi (Tongan)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Bootlegger

Cousins The story of three cousins connected by blood but separated by life circumstances. Based on the 1992 novel by Patricia Grace, this poetic and heartfelt film shows connection through hope and love. We follow the journeys of Mata, Makareta, and Missy. Three distinct people with three lifepaths woven across time, where they converge and separate. This is a story about how they converge back to the land they once came from. Mata, who is introverted, is stolen from her home and placed in an orphanage and grows up disconnected from the land. Makareta, having received the best of both worlds, runs away from her duties to be a lawyer far from the land she is connected to, while Missy is the heartbeat of the family, staying on in the place where she grew up. This story is how they reconnect to each other and the land they come from.

Ainsley Gardiner has been a producer on several successful short films and hit movies. She launched Miss Conception Films with fellow producer Georgina Conder. Their work includes the hit comedy The Breaker Uppers and the documentary She Shears.

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 99 min English/Māori w English Subtitles Dramatic Feature TIFF Bell Lightbox

Directors

Ainsley Gardiner (Te Whanau-a-Apanui/ Ngati Pikiao/Ngati Awa)

Briar Grace-Smith is a director and writer for the page, stage, and screen. She is known for Waru (2017), Fresh Meat (2012), and The Strength of Water (2009), which won a New Zealand Scriptwriters Award. Briar Grace-Smith (Nga Puhi/Te Arawa) Producers Georgina Conder Libby Hakaraia (Māori/Ngati Kapu/ Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Friday, October 22, 2021

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

USA 2021 66 min English Documentary Feature

Director/Producer Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfoot/Salish) Producers Kendra Mylnechuk Potter (Lhaq'temish) Jeri Rafter Gita Saedi Kiely

Daughter of a Lost Bird

Deep Ocean

Daughter of a Lost Bird follows Kendra, an actress who is an adult Native adoptee, on her journey to reconnect with her birth family. Discovering her Lummi heritage, she confronts issues of her own identity, unpacking layered histories and complexities. Her singular story represents many affected by the United States government’s policy towards Indigenous peoples.

When the snow is falling as the sun is shining, it’s a sign that we have lost someone. Deep Ocean is symbolized within the two dancers, where the crosssection between life and sorrow mirror each other as they perform within the three worlds.

Brooke Swaney is a producer/filmmaker with an MFA in Film from NYU. Daughter of a Lost Bird is Brooke’s first feature documentary which was the Closing Night Film at the 2021 New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival. In 2019, she was selected to participate as a NATIVe Fellow at the European Film Market/Berlinale.

Ulannaq Ingemann is a Greenlandic filmmaker based in Nuuk, Greenland. He attended The European Film College in Denmark. This was his stepping stone to a career in film.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Canada 2021 6 min English Experimental Short World Premiere EAST

Writer Tyra Cross Child (Blackfoot)

Ulannaq Ingemann (Inuk)

Berda Larsen is a Greenlandic emerging filmmaker based in Nuuk, Greenland. She is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Culture, History, and Society at Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Director Trevor Solway (Blackfoot)

Directors Berda Larsen (Inuk)

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 2 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Dear Friend A beautiful, poignant visual letter made by Indigenous youth to a cruel “friend” (anxiety) that is equally stunning, empathetic, poetic, and profound. Made with great care and support from Siksika Health Services. Trevor Solway, Sinakson, is a Blackfoot filmmaker, producer, and youth mentor from Siksika Nation. He is the founder of The Napi Collective, a mentorship filmmaking society based in Siksika.

Divide and Dissolve – Far From Ideal (Chelsea Wolfe Remix) Far From Ideal (Chelsea Wolfe Remix) is a sometimes surreal and divine music video that showcases our incredible wahine Māori haka and our wahine Māori gods in a familiar story of forced religion on Indigenous peoples. Amber Beaton is a music video director from Aotearoa (New Zealand). Charmed by a gloomy aesthetic, Amber’s work has found a home with the rock, metal, and alternative music scenes in New Zealand and abroad.

Director/Producer Amber Beaton (Ngati Kahungunu) Musical Artist Takiaya Reed (Cherokee/Tsalagi) Sylvie Nehill (Māori)

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Greenland 2021 4 min English/Greenlandic Music Video REVERBERATE

Friday, October 22, 2021

Norway 2021 32 min Sámi w English Subtitles Documentary Short North American Premiere NORTH

Director/Producer Elle Márjá Eira (Sámi)

USA 2020 10 min English Experimental Short Ontario Premiere NORTH

EALÁT (Good Pasture) ̏As long as the reindeer exist here, so do we.˝ Through Elle Márjá Eira’s eyes, we follow her family in different seasons with their reindeer herd. A story about living and surviving in Sámi reindeer husbandry in strange times. Elle Márjá Eira is a Sámi director, musician, producer, and artist from Guovdageaidnu (Norway). Eira has been a strong and uncompromising voice in Sápmi for several years across genres and forms of expression.

Woodrow Hunt (Klamath/Modoc/Cherokee)

A stark and beautiful showing of a familiar route, Faces, Displays, and Other Imaginary Things is remapped to contemplate and remember the complicated past of Indigenous labour in the Pacific Northwest. Woodrow Hunt is an artist of Klamath, Modoc, and Cherokee descent. Woodrow is the founder of the Indigenous film production company Tule Films.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Canada 2021 14 min English Documentary Short Ontario Premiere ABOVE

Director/Writer Ossie Michelin (Labrador Inuk)

Director

Canada 2021 11 min English Documentary Short World Premiere SOUTH

Evan’s Drum

Gift to Give

A heartfelt portrait of reclaiming traditional Labrador Inuit drum dancing told through the eyes of seven-year-old Evan Winters and his mother, Amy. Through making and sharing stories, we witness the continuums and strength of Inuit family culture.

A story of a Two-Spirited daughter and her father, the nuances in their relationship of acceptance and deep love. The story is told through the lens of the daughter who has decided to give her kidney to her ailing father in the hopes of saving his life.

Coming from a long line of storytellers, Ossie Michelin is a Labrador Inuk journalist from North West River, Newfoundland. He is a multimedia artist focusing on exploring the North and sharing stories of the Indigenous World.

Erica Daniels is Cree/Ojibway from Peguis First Nation. She is a proud mother, multi-award-winning filmmaker, and owner of Kejic Productions.

Director/Producer Erica Daniels (Cree/Ojibway)

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Faces, Displays, and Other Imaginary Things

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 8 min English/Māori w English subtitles Documentary Short International Premiere WEST

Director/Producer/Writer Corinna Hunziker (Ngapuhi/Ngati Kahu) Producer Justin Scott (Ngapuhi)

HAKA Haha

Hawaiian Soul

Director/Writer ʻĀina Paikai (Native Hawaiian)

A humorous look at the cultural appropriation of the haka by non-Māori people globally. JP goes deep into Aotearoa to figure out: when is it okay to haka?

During the 1970s Native rights movement in Hawai‘i, a prominent activist and musician George Helm enlists the support of community Elders from Maui to protect the island of Kaho‘olawe from military bombing.

Producer Kaliko Ma‘i‘i (Native Hawaiian)

Corinna Hunziker is a driven and gifted Indigenous storyteller. Corinna has been directing for five years, most notably on THREE’s cultural diversity series, Both Worlds (2015).

ʻĀina Paikai is a Sundance Native Lab Fellow. He wrote and acted in the awardwinning short film Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki (2019)

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Norway 2021 5 min Without Dialogue Experimental Short World Premiere BELOW

Director Ann Holmgren (Sámi)

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 13 min English Dramatic Short World Premiere EAST

Háldi

Hiama

Set between Sápmi and the underground world of Saivo, the unity and power of Sámi female relations is replenished by the animistic spirit, Háldi, in this lovely, mysterious collaboration between filmmaker Ann Holmgren and composer Mette Henriette.

Hiama is an amazing reclamation of the horror genre through a Solomon Islands lens. When a teenage girl encounters racism and microaggressions at her high school, her Hiama (shamanic guardian spirit) teaches her to invoke her inner power into a new reality.

Ann Holmgren is the daughter of a reindeer herding mother and a Swedish father from Northern Sweden, Sápmi. She is a graduate of the Norwegian Film School and is currently based in Norway.

Matasila Freshwater is an emerging writer/director acclaimed for her work in reframing the Eurocentric genre of horror. Her short vignette representing the Solomon Islands was featured in the Pacific anthology Vai.

Director/Writer Matasila Freshwater (Solomon Islands) Producer Lisa Taouma (Samoan)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

USA 2020 20 min English/Ōlelo Hawai'i w English subtitles Short Drama Canadian Premiere WEST

Sunday, October 24, 2021 Greenland 2020 7 min English/Greenlandic w English subtitles Documentary Short Ontario Premiere CENTRE

Director/Producer Inuk Jørgensen (Inuk/Greenlandic)

In the Shadow of the Tugtupite An exploration of the lands of Greenland that exemplify its beauty, while questioning the extractive industries taking from these lands and worrying about the long term effects of these harmful activities. Inuk Jørgensen is an award-winning, Indigenous filmmaker who focuses on aesthetic images and personal stories that touch on the identity, history, and culture of the Greenlandic Inuit people.

Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair 60

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Canada 20210 5 min Innu w English Subtitles Documentary Short Ontario Premiere NORTH

Director Mary Menie Mark (Innu)

Inniun ueshkat mak anutshish (Life, then and now) A heartfelt and intimate familial portrait of a conversation between a mother and her daughter. A beautiful, experimental testament to moving from hut to house. Mary Mark was born in Pakuashipi. She is an emerging filmmaker who is deeply connected to her community.

Renowned internationally as one of the matriarchs of Indigenous Cinema, Alanis Obomsawin is a storyteller with an extraordinary body of work and breadth of practice. Initially hired as a consultant for the National Film Board, she advocated for Indigenous representation and voice, grounded in education and honouring future generations, through her filmmaking. The Abenaki director has received numerous international honours and in 2019, was named a Companion of the Order of Canada — its highest distinction. Her work continues to inspire and connect Indigenous communities.

Canada 2021 30 min English Documentary Short ABOVE

Director/Writer/Producer Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)

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As the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Senator Murray Sinclair was a key figure in raising global awareness of the atrocities of Canada’s residential school system. With determination, wisdom, and kindness, Senator Sinclair remains steadfast in his belief that the path to actual reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples requires understanding and accepting the often difficult truths about Canada’s past and present. Alanis Obomsawin shares the Senator’s powerful speech from when he received the WFM-Canada World Peace Award, interspersing the heartbreaking testimonies of former students imprisoned at residential schools. Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair reminds us to honour the lives and legacies of the tens of thousands of Indigenous children taken from their homes and cultures and — with hope — points us to a better future.

Friday, October 22, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Canada 2020 9 min English/Inuktitut/French w English Subtitles Documentary Short EAST

Director Ulivia Uviluk (Inuk)

Inuit Languages in the 21st Century Inuit Languages in the 21st Century is a sweet and insightful exploration of Inuit language concerns by Inuit youth from different regions and dialects. They harness available resources and technology as friendly tools for preservation and continuation. Ulivia Uviluk (Olivia Lya Thomassie) is a young Inuk filmmaker based in Montréal, Quebec, and Kangirsuk, Nunavik. She made her first short film with Wapikoni Mobile in 2019 and has assisted them as a local coordinator.

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Australia 2021 12 min English Short Drama International Premiere Before Warrior Spirit

An enigmatic presence haunts the depths of the Amazon rainforest, where an Indigenous Achuar teenager has disappeared. During the search for the young man, his family decides to consult with a Shaman, who, immersed in a trance, reveals that the young man was taken by the devil but the Shaman has intervened by showing the young man the way back to his home. While waiting for his return, secrets of the rainforest and Amazonian visions of life after death are touched, vanishing the documentary filmmaker’s concepts of reality. José Cardoso has settled in Spain, Mexico, South Africa, and currently in Ecuador, developing fiction films, animation, and documentaries on themes that revolve around surrealism, conscience, and decoloniality. His work has been selected for the RAI Pulcinella Awards, Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, Cinélatino de Toulouse, and La Habana, among others. He recently won awards at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the China International New Media Short Film Festival, 2021.

Directors Curtis Taylor (Martu)

Jadai: The Broome Brawler

Nathan Mewett

A gripping film inspired by the story of the real life Paddy Jadai, who is CoDirector Curtis Taylor’s grandfather. Jadai: The Broome Brawler is a story that takes a fresh look at police brutality and Australian Indigenous incarceration. Jadai, despite being wrongfully arrested and mistreated in prison, finds the will to rise above the brutality and prejudice to earn the respect of his town.

Producer Glen Stasiuk (Noongar)

Curtis Taylor is a Martu (Australian Aboriginal) artist currently based in Perth. Over the past decade, Taylor has developed a distinct practice that spans sculptural installation, painting, and filmmaking.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Ecuador 2020 91 min Spanish/Quechua w English Subtitles Documentary Feature Ontario Premiere Closing Gala

Director/Writer José Cardoso (Achuar/Shuar) Producers Wendy Aguilar José Cardoso (Achuar/Shuar)

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Iwianch, el Diablo Venado (Iwianch, the Devil Deer)

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Aotearoa (New Zealand)/ Western Sāmoa 2021 13 min English/Sāmoan w English subtitles Dramatic Short World Premiere EAST

Director Coben Storer-Goto (Sāmoan) Producers Hans Masoe (Sāmoan) Levon James-Rawiri (Nga Puhi) Writer Lene Aiono (Sāmoan)

Junior

Kahurangi

A Māori/Sāmoan teenage girl works hard to prepare for her first boxing match as she copes with the recent loss of her brother. With strong support from Coach Vili, Junior focuses on overcoming adversity both in and out of the ring.

Kahurangi is a heartfelt coming of age story about a teenage girl struggling to overcome her fear of loss. As she connects with another Māori youth, Kahurangi finds strength, pride, and resilience in both herself and her culture.

Coben Storer-Goto is an emerging writer and director with more than ten years in the film industry as a performer. He is the head of Vanguard Films Limited.

Kayla Hamilton is an emerging director from Waiheke Island, New Zealand. Her graduating student film, Kahurangi, premiered at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival and screened at the Maoriland Film Festival in 2021.

Director/Writer Kayla Hamilton (Ngati Porou/ Ngati Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa)

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Canada 2020 11 min English Documentary Short SOUTH

Mexico 2020 13 min Mixtec w English Subtitles Experimental Short Ontario Premiere SOUTH

Director/Writer Melaw Nakehk’o (Dené/Dënesuliné) Producer Coty Savard (Cree/Métis)

K'i Tah Amongst the Birch

Kii Nche Ndutsa (Time and the Seashell)

Activist Melaw Nakehk’o spends the pandemic with her family at a remote land camp in the Northwest Territories. This film is an autobiography and a love letter to living on the land, transporting us to a different realm.

Different landscapes of time are remembered and imagined by a boy and a man listening to the sounds of a seashell. The man thinks about the teachings he was given while talking about how the lands around him have changed. He wonders about what the future will hold for the planet.

Melaw Nakehk’o is a Dené/Dënesuliné artist based out of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is a founding member of Dene Nahjo.

Itandehui Jansen was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and studied film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. She has participated in film programs such as the Torino Film Lab and Berlinale Talents.

Director Itandehui Jansen (Mixtec) Producer Armando Bautista Garcia (Mixtec)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2019 15 min English Dramatic Short Canadian Premiere EAST

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2021 6 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Kwâhkotênikêw (Fire Starter) A place of belonging in a conflicted land can be hard to find. When two worlds come together, it’s what flames the spirit that reveals the true self.

Director/Producer Reneltta Arluk (Inuvialuit/Dené/Cree) Producer Joel Ivany

Reneltta Arluk is currently the Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Originally from the Northwest Territories, she is of Inuvialuit, Dené, and Cree descent.

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Canada 2021 125 min English/Blackfoot w English Subtitles Documentary Feature

Director/Writer Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (Blackfoot/Sámi)

Framed within the ongoing and historical impacts of settler colonialism in Blackfoot territory, this intimate portrait illuminates the beauty, strength, and core spirit of Kainai First Nation as they implement harm reduction and healing based on the value of compassion. The crucial, collective work of medical professionals, first responders, and community members in active addiction and recovery is brought to light with full dignity, love, and respect as the community implements their own life saving solutions. Kímmapiiyipitssini also affirms Kainai’s origin as a powerful and thriving people — countering not only the settler, colonial view that blames Indigenous peoples for our own state of crisis, but also attributing the crisis as a direct and devastating impact of settler colonialism itself.

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (Blackfoot/Sámi) David Christensen

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a highly accomplished writer, director, producer, and actor. She is a member of Kainai First Nation (Blood Tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy) as well as Sámi from Norway.

Canada 2021 6 min French/Innu w English subtitles Experimental Short SOUTH

The urgent, astounding, much lauded new film by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers imbues the act of witnessing her community’s response to the opioid crisis with an ethic of empathy, love, and great care.

Producers Lori Lozinski

Thursday, October 21, 2021

L’innu du futur A person walks through urban streets, an image of their homelands obscuring their face. As they walk, they talk about their identity as an Indigenous person living in an urban setting. Stéphane Nepton was born in Sept-Îles on Québec’s North Coast. He is Innu from Mashteuiatsh and has been working as a video game FX artist for 22 years alongside his practice as a digital artist.

Director Stéphane Nepton (Innu)

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Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Canada 2021 3 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Director/Producer Luna Red (Mi’kmaw)

Canada 2021 34 min English/French w English Subtitles Documentary Short WEST

Lost Tribe

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again

Lost Tribe is about unity among Indigenous peoples. The video addresses systemic racism, diversity, and inclusivity within the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island. This powerful visual highlights topics of featurism, identity, acceptance, and belonging.

An intimate and powerful portrait of Mary Two-Axe Earley and her fight against the Government of Canada for revoking her Indian Status because she married a non-Indian.

Luna Red is an Afro-Indigenous, independent artist from Nova Scotia. Luna has performed live at many large events and stage concerts, and in television and music videos for some of today's industry icons.

Courtney Montour is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Kahnawake. She works in the documentary film and digital media fields exploring issues of Indigenous identity.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Friday, October 22, 2021

Colombia 2020 25 min Dʉmʉna w English Subtitles Dramatic Short World Premiere EAST

Canada 2020 6 min Without Dialogue Experimental Short Toronto Premiere Before Ste. Anne

Directors Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch (Algonquin/Anishnaabe) Jay Havens (Haudenosaunee/Scottish)

Courtney Montour (Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk))

Maple Sugar Moon A future imagining of a Haudenosaunee village witnessing the season of the Maple Sugar Moon, this lyrical, animated short takes us through a longhouse, over fields of three sisters, and the maple syrup tapping grove. Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch is a multidisciplinary composer, librettist/playwright, producer, and educator. Jay Havens (he/him/they) is a multidisciplinary, Two-Spirit artist whose practice embraces relearning the ways of their ancestors as an adventure and unlearning the ways which go against natural cycles as a lifelong challenge.

Matuna, la sombra del guerrero (The Shadow of the Warrior) Matuna is a beautiful, layered journey that transits between the spirit world and the present day Wiwa homeland plagued by decades of Colombian armed conflict. Invoking protection through both the earth and the ancient story of Matuna, young Shemaku incites his own heroic journey. Rafael Roberto Mojica Gil is an award-winning Wiwa director, cameraman, and founder of Bunkuaneyuman Colectivo Wiwa, whose work fosters Wiwa culture, community, and resilience.

Director Rafael Roberto Mojica Gil (Wiwa) Producer Saúl Gil Nakoguí (Wiwa)

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Director

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2021 19 min English Dramatic Short BELOW

Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics

Director/Writer Terril Calder (Orkney Cree Métis)

The inner turmoil of a girl with mixed Indigenous/European ancestry is laid bare as she struggles to reclaim herself from the Seven Deadly Sins through the power of the Seven Sacred Teachings in this fearless, defiant affirmation of healing identity and self. Terril Calder is a highly acclaimed Orkney Cree Métis artist who writes, directs, crafts, and animates her own stop motion films. Her films have screened nationally and internationally and won several Best Animation awards.

Sunday, October 21, 2021 Canada 2021 45 min English/Ojibway w English subtitles Documentary Medium CENTRE

Friday, October 22, 2021 Canada 2020 18 min French w English subtitles Documentary Short Ontario Premiere NORTH

Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin documents the stories of the seven First Nations teenagers who died or went missing while in high school in Thunder Bay, Ontario centring the voices of the families and communities. Alongside the stories of family and community, evidence of the systemic racism in Thunder Bay is revealed. The film is inspired by Tanya Talaga’s book Seven Fallen Feathers.

Directors

Michelle Derosier is Anishinaabe from Migisi Sahgaigan First Nation in Treaty Three Territory in Northwestern Ontario. She is a mother, grandmother, artist, activist, and filmmaker.

Michelle Derosier (Anishinaabe)

Tanya Talaga is an author, public speaker, producer, director, journalist, and storyteller. Her mother’s family is from Fort William First Nation and her father was Polish-Canadian.

Métamorphoses Having left Nunavik for Montréal at the age of eight in the aftermath of tragic events, a young Inuk woman learns to live with the past and to find balance between the two worlds.

Tanya Talaga (Anishinaabe) Producer Tanya Talaga (Anishinaabe)

Nicolas Renaud lives in Montréal and is a member of the Huron-Wendat First Nation of Wendake (Quebec). He makes documentaries, experimental films, and video installations.

Director/Producer Nicolas Renaud (Wendat)

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Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin (Spirit to Soar)

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Canada 2021 6 min English Experimental Music Video REVERBERATE

Directors Bawaadan Collective (Various Indigenous Nations) Producer Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora)

Canada 2021 5 min English Dramatic Short Toronto Premiere EAST

Monologue Harmonic

Namid

Monologue Harmonics is a seemingly paradoxical visual and sonic offering. This journey mirrors a reality not unlike the current Indigenous experience, with respect to constant colonial resistance, where coming to terms with lost cultural distinction is fast becoming the new culture of today/tomorrow.

An Ojibwe fancy shawl dancer finds strength amidst loss as her spirit is ignited by a warrior story shared by her Mishomis and she finds her place within the generational line. With music composition by Melody McKiver (Anishinaabe).

The Bawaadan Collective was formalized in 2019. Utilizing close friend and familial ties, they quickly began to self-produce their own Indigenous content. They continue to explore and expand their membership to incorporate new skills and relationships.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Sagi Kahane-Rapport Producers Morningstar Derosier (Nehiyawak/Anishinaabe) James Stewart

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Canada 2021 13 min English/Inuktitut w English Subtitles Documentary Short BELOW

Director/Writer Jennie Williams (Inuk)

Victoria Anderson-Gardner (Anishinaabe)

Puerto Rico/USA 2021 16 min English/Spanish w English Subtitles Animated Dramatic Short Canadian Premiere Before Iwianch, el Diablo Venado Closing Gala

Nalujuk Night

Nuevo Rico

Each year, families in Nain celebrate the frightful arrival of figures who punish or reward, where the only options are to sing, shake hands, or run. Nalujuk Night is the debut film by acclaimed Inuk artist Jennie Williams, expanding on her twelve-year photographic series on this Labrador-Inuit tradition.

A gritty and dystopian, Latinx futuristic story of a brother and sister who stumble upon a celestial secret that changes their lives forever. They are propelled into Reggaetón stardom, but they soon discover that their newfound fame comes at a deep price

Jennie Williams is an Inuk visual artist and throat singer from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Through stunning black-and-white imagery, she reveals how this terrifying tradition preserves language, reinforces community, and keeps children on their best behaviour.

Kristian Mercado Figueroa is a Puerto Rican director/writer living in Spanish Harlem whose animated short film Nuevo Rico won Best Animated Short at SXSW 2021. His work is celebrated for its poetic portrayal of working-class struggles, highlighting the gaps between love and loss.

Director Kristian Mercado Figueroa (Taino/Puerto Rican)

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Victoria Anderson-Gardner is an award-winning, Queer Ojibwe filmmaker and activist from Eagle Lake First Nation, Ontario.

Directors

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Canada 2020 16 min French/Anishinaabe w English Subtitles Experimental Short Before Beans Drive-In

Odehimin (Heart Berry) A stunning and poetic reminder of the importance of self-love and acceptance through the odehimin (heart berry) teaching.

Director Kijâtai-Alexandra Veillette-Cheezo (Anicinape)

Kijâtai Veillette-Cheezo is an artist/activist born in Val-d’Or, Quebec. As an emerging filmmaker, they create work that reflects Indigenous realities while working to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 Canada/New Zealand 2021 101 min English/Cree w English Subtitles Dramatic Feature Opening Gala TIFF Bell Lightbox

Director Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis) Producers Paul Barkin Tara Woodbury Ainsley Gardiner (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui/ Ngāti Pikiao/Ngāti Awa) Georgina Conder Chelsea Winstanley (Ngāti Ranginui)

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Set in a distant dystopian future, Turtle Island (North America) is overrun by a military presence and children are considered property of the State. Taken from their families, they are trained in boarding schools to fight for the regime. Niska, a member of the Cree Nation, raises her eleven-year-old daughter Waseese in the bush to evade the heavily militarized surveillance. When Waseese is discovered and interned after a serious injury, Niska joins an underground group of Indigenous warriors determined to rescue their abducted children as Waseese begins to step into her strength and power.

Australia 2021 4 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Danis Goulet is an award-winning writer/director from La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Her work has screened at TIFF, Berlinale, Sundance, MoMA, and imagineNATIVE. She has been involved in the film milieu as a programmer at TIFF and Artistic Director at imagineNATIVE. Her debut feature, Night Riders, was developed with support from the Sundance Institute and is the first ever Indigenous co-production between Canada and New Zealand.

One By One In memory of the many members of our communities and nations, the music video One By One tells the truth about the colonial genocide that continues throughout the destructive cycle of “Australia.” Teila Watson is a writer, poet, singer, and performer whose art practice revolves around climate change, ecological and social sustainability, and therefore, the importance of Land Rights and First Nations sovereignty.

Director/Producer Teila Watson (Birri Gubba/Gangulu) Writer Dr. Lilla Watson (Birri Gubba/Gangulu) Contribution Dr. Fiona Foley (Badjala)

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Night Raiders

Sunday, October 24, 2021 Canada 2021 4 min English/Cree w English Subtitles Animated Dramatic Short World Premiere CENTRE

Premonition: on the eve of signing Treaty 6

Director Barry Bilinksy (Cree/Métis)

The voice of an Elder shares his premonitions of the future after the signing of Treaty 6. We hear these premonitions first in Cree with English following. The premonitions of the Elder are represented visually through animated images of the lands being changed. Barry Bilinsky is a professional theatre creator and filmmaker of Cree, Métis, and Ukrainian heritage. Based in Alberta, he has worked across Canada on projects centred primarily around the proliferation of Indigenous arts.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Canada 2021 92 min English Dramatic Feature Ontario Premiere

Director/Producer Trevor Mack (Tŝilhqot'in (Chilcotin)) Producer Rylan Friday (Cree/Ojibway)

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Greenland 2021 2 min English Experimental Short International Premiere SOUTH

Tyler, a young aspiring filmmaker, uses old technology to create films that he shows in his community while exploring his dreams of becoming a famous filmmaker. Tyler struggles with his relationship with his father, and it is clear there are parts of his family history he is not aware of. While out filming, Tyler meets an older teenager, who he has never seen before, but who encourages him to make his latest film. Timelines blur and the old camera Tyler uses creates visual shifts that tell stories of Tyler’s life that he unravels through the making of his most personal film.

Trevor Mack is an award-winning Tŝilhqot'in (Chilcotin) filmmaker, writer, and photographer. Raised in the Tŝilhqot'in community of Tl'etinqox, the foundations of his film work are based upon the nourishment of the next generations of the Tŝilhqot'in Nation.

Puisi Puisi is a quick look at Greenlandic life from landscape to seal hunt to the meal on the table. Pilutaq Lundblad is a production manager at the National Theatre of Greenland. He is a part-time filmmaker and a musician.

Director Pilutaq Lundblad (Greenlandic) Producer Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen (Greenlandic)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Portraits from a Fire

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Canada 2020 101 min English/Kanien’kéha w English subtitles Dramatic Feature Ontario Premiere

Director Zoe Hopkins (Heiltsuk/Mohawk) Producers Laura Milliken (Ojibway) Paula Devonshire (Mohawk) Peter James Thornton

Run Woman Run

Shifting Tides

After a health scare, Beck, a single mom, sees visions of a ghost, runner Tom Longboat, who works to inspire her to get healthy. We follow Beck, as she takes a journey to reclaim her health, family, and language, all centred around her goal to run a marathon dedicated to the love of her family, herself, and her culture. This journey is emotional and powerful. Beck is a character who is easy to root for.

A poetic call to action to rise in solidarity with Black and Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, Shifting Tides features moving images of TwoSpirit hip-hop hoop dancers, #blacklivesmatter, and the evocative lyricism of Kimmortal, JB the First Lady, and Missy D.

Zoe Hopkins is a Heiltsuk and Mohawk woman born in Bella Bella, British Columbia. She is raising her son in her father’s community of Six Nations, where she learned to speak and teach Kanyen’kéha.

Producer Beany John (Cree)

Red Buffalo Nova is an Ojibwe, Two-Spirit, transgender artist, filmmaker, and storyteller. They work by combining moving images, sound, and storytelling as a means of understanding their Indigenous identity.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Canada 2020 3 min Without Dialogue Experimental Short Toronto Premiere Before Portraits from a Fire

Director Lindsay McIntyre (Inuk/Scottish)

Director/Producer/Writer Red Buffalo Nova (Ojibwe)

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 15 min English/Sāmoan w English Subtitles World Premiere BELOW

seeing her

Sina and Tuna

Visibly stunning, seeing her is a silent portrait of the filmmaker’s greatgrandmother’s amauti. This analogue animation weaves the beaded textures that give space to the labour, skill, and memories that this amauti holds.

A new twist on an ancient legend set during a Tinder date gone wrong. Sina invokes the power of her moon goddess namesake to protect against the otherworldly predator who turns out to be her date.

Lindsay McIntyre is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist of Inuit and settler Scottish descent. Working with 16mm film using experimental and handmade techniques, her short films circle themes of portraiture, place, form, and personal histories.

Miki Magasiva is a Sāmoan director, writer, and performer based in Aotearoa. His short film, Sina and Tuna, is part of the acclaimed five-part contemporary horror series, Teine Sā, based on supernatural legends from across the Pacific Islands.

Director Miki Magasiva (Sāmoan) Producer Lisa Taouma (Sāmoan) Writer Tusiata Avia (Sāmoan)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Canada 2020 7 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 USA 2021 10 min English/Mvskoke Creek w English Subtitles Dramatic Short World Premiere EAST

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Peru/Jordan/USA 2021 81 min Spanish/Arabic/Shipibo w English subtitles Documentary Feature

Director/Writer Kyle Bell (Thlopthlocco Muscogee)

The poignant story of a Muscogee Creek youth as he prepares to depart for college. Troubled by what he must leave behind to pursue his dream of basketball, he is strengthened by the love of his grandmother. Made by Kyle Bell with mentorship by Spike Lee.

Producers Kyle Bell (Thlopthlocco Muscogee)

Kyle Bell is an up and coming director, cinematographer, and editor. He is an alumnus of the 2019 Sundance Institute’s Native Filmmakers Lab as well as the 2020 – 2021 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in which he was mentored by cinema legend Spike Lee.

Two Syrian women in Za’atari Refugee Camp, Jordan, and two Indigenous, Shipibo-Konibo women in Lima, Peru, correspond through film diaries, forming connections and friendship. They are separated by a vast distance but find ways to be close through sharing stories of motherhood, displacement, and their everyday lives. They learn about each other’s cultures and traditions while connecting through an understanding of living through displacement and uncertainty. Moving back and forth between scenes of the women talking on video chat and scenes of their homes, communities, families, and lives, Solo el mar nos separa shares beautiful moments of intimacies.

Dylan Brodie Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee) Brooks Hall

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Sweden 2020 5 min Sámi/Swedish w English subtitles Documentary Short WEST

Christy Cauper Silvano (Shipibo-Konibo)

Christy Cauper Silvano is a Shipibo-Konibo photographer, filmmaker, and cultural practitioner living in Cantagallo, Lima, Peru. Karoli Bautista Pizarro is a Shipibo-Konibo filmmaker, cultural practitioner, and activist living in Cantagallo, Lima, Peru. Karoli Bautista Pizarro (Shipibo/Konibo)

Khaldiya Amer Ali

Khaldiya Amer Ali is a Syrian filmmaker living in Za'atari Refugee Camp, Jordan. Marah Mohammad Alkhateeb is a Syrian filmmaker living in Za'atari Refugee Camp, Jordan.

Svonni vs Skatteverket (Svonni vs the Swedish Tax Agency) Svonni vs Skatteverket is a feisty and charming portrait of a Sámi woman who tries to convince the Swedish Tax Agency that she has the right to make a tax deduction for the purchase of a dog. A humorous look at cultural clashes and the struggle to practice Sámi culture in today’s Sweden. Maria Fredriksson is a documentary filmmaker of Sámi descent and the co-founder of the Stockholm-based production company Ballad Film. She studied at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts and at the New York Film Academy.

Marah Mohammad Alkhateeb

Director Maria Fredriksson (Sámi/Swedish)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Directors

Solo el mar nos separa | ‫اننيب رحبلا طقف‬ (Only the Ocean Between Us)

Spirits

Friday, October 22, 2021 USA/Guam 2021 6 min English Documentary Short World Premiere NORTH

Ta Hasso I Manaina (Let’s Remember Our Ancestors) A positive portrayal of the Members of the Kutturan Chamoru Foundation coming together virtually to create an in-language chant. This is the story of its creation.

Director Neil Tinkham (Chamorro) Producers Neil Tinkham (Chamorro) Heidi Chargualaf-Quenga (Chamorro)

Neil Tinkham (Chamorro) is originally from the Pacific island of Guam. Ta Hasso I Manaina received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Pacific Islanders in Communications. Neil currently lives in Los Angeles.

Friday, October 22, 2021 Canada 2021 79 min French w English subtitles Experimental Feature Toronto Premiere

Director/Producer Rhayne Vermette (Métis)

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Ste. Anne is an experimental film that observes a family and community through a lens that skews time and creates space for reflection and nostalgia. The scenes move between family gathering, time between a mother and daughter who are rekindling their relationship, and the land that they live on. The human relationships bring tension to the screen while the relationship with the land offers time for reflection and quiet. The narrative path in the film winds through the lives of the characters is never meant to reveal the story of their lives, but to give glimpses into the moments they live that straddle the line of fantasy and reality.

Canada 2021 4 min English Animated Documentary Short CENTRE

Rhayne Vermette was born in Notre Dame de Lourdes, Manitoba. While studying architecture, she fell into the practice of image making and storytelling. Rhayne’s films are opulent collages of fiction, animation, documentary, reenactments, and divine interruption.

The Gift A woman looks back on her childhood and the teachings her father gave her about generosity, giving, and community. Rachel Garrick is a band member of Lac Seul First Nation and resides in Hudson, northwestern Ontario. She has participated in the Docs North Film Bootcamp and is an NSI alumni.

Director/Producer Rachel Garrick (Ojibway)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Ste. Anne

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2021 5 min English Documentary Short Toronto Premiere ABOVE

Director Dana Solomon (Anishinaabe/Afro-Guyanese)

An Anishinaabe man reflects on his father’s teachings, culture, and identity, recognizing the strength of these three attributes braided together. Dana Solomon is an emerging Afro-Indigenous filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter from Sagkeeng First Nation. As a graduate of York University, her passion for performance has led her down the path of working in the Film & TV industry in various roles.

The Train Station A heartfelt animation of the love of family despite colonial impacts, The Train Station filmmaker Lyana Patrick narrates her family’s powerful story at Lejac Indian Residential School.

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2020 2 min English Animated Documentary Short ABOVE

Lyana Patrick is a member of the Stellat’en First Nation (Carrier Nation) on her father’s side and Acadian/Scottish on her mother’s side. She has worked in communications and education for 17 years, including as a journalist, communications officer, and documentary filmmaker.

Director Lyana Patrick (Stellat’en)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

The Strength of My Spirit

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2021 2 min Without Dialogue Experimental Short BELOW

Tussle

Director/Producer Christopher Grant (Mi’kmaw)

Playful forms attempt to merge together in an anxious wrestle for unified harmony in this strangely wonderful animation by emerging director Christopher Grant. Commissioned by Netflix and REEL CANADA for National Canadian Film Day 2021. Christopher Grant is a Mi'kmaw filmmaker from Pabineau First Nation, New Brunswick. Inspired by life and death, Chris animates to express the humour and terror of existence.

Friday, October 22, 2021 Mexico 2019 80 min Tzotzil/Spanish w English Subtitles Documentary Feature Canadian Premiere

Director/Writer María Sojob (Tzotzil)

Saturday, October 23, 2021 Canada 2021 4 min English/Inuktitut Music Video REVERBERATE

In her beautiful debut documentary feature, Tzotzil filmmaker María Sojob shares the unexpectedly tender encounter between herself and her elderly grandfather as she tries to make sense of their family’s complicated expressions of love. María returns to her ancestral home of Chenalhó to spend time with her estranged Tote (grandfather). With graceful, gentle pacing and a skillful eye for simplicity that is both stunning and profound, Tote_Abuelo unfolds in a richly nuanced way. As her grandfather weaves a traditional hat amidst failing eyesight, the threads of their family history are untangled, revealing the complexity of answers María is in search of. The generational shifts in parenting and affection, especially towards women, changing societal context, and her own experience as a mother deeply inform the film. Between the silences, in the shared company of her grandfather, she comes to understand, and also to live, the meaning of love in Tzotzil.

María Sojob is an award-winning Tzotzil filmmaker and educator from Chiapas in southern Mexico. Her films explore and reflect Mayan/Tzotzil women’s knowledge, narratives, and aesthetic ways.

Tussiaq (Pray) feat. Shauna Seeteenak Pray is featured on Joey Nowyuk’s debut album, Tumitit, and is co-written and creatively guided by Nunavut-based, Inuit artists Joey Nowyuk and Shauna Seeteenak. Joey Nowyuk is an award-winning singer and songwriter from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, and was raised by a community that instilled in him the value of culture and language.

Directors Joey Nowyuk (Inuk) Aïda Maigre-Touchet Writer Shauna Seeteenak (Inuk)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Tote_Abuelo (Tote_Grandfather)

Thursday, October 21, 2021 Greenland 2021 12 min Greenlandic w English subtitles Dramatic Short International Premiere SOUTH

Director/Writer Berda Larsen (Inuk/Kalaaleq) Producers Nina Skydsbjerg Jacobsen (Inuk/Kalaaleq) Emile Hertling Péronard (Inuk/Kalaaleq) Writer Laura Lennert Jensen (Inuk/Kalaaleq)

Tuullik As a group of young people discuss planning the upcoming pride parade, two of the friends, Tukummeq and Luna, tell the others Luna will be introducing Tukummeq to their family. At Luna’s family’s home, they take a moment to themselves which leads to a performative storytelling of the loon and the raven. Berda Larsen (b. 1994) is a Greenlandic, emerging filmmaker based in Nuuk, Greenland.

Warrior Spirit 88

Saturday, October 23, 2021

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Canada 2021 4 min English Music Video REVERBERATE

Landon Dyksterhouse (Navajo) is an award-winning documentary film director. He has been featured in Variety magazine and is a contributor to Videomaker magazine.

Directors Virtual Creative Native (Various Indigenous Nations) Producers Lila Pine (Mi'kmaw) Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree)

Virtual Creative Native: A Youth Initiative in the Arts Introducing a new cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s "We Are Circling" directed and performed by Indigenous youth. The visuals for this video were shot by the youth in their respective communities in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Virtual Creative Native gives Indigenous youth a taste of the arts. This initiative was conceived by Lila Pine and Buffy Sainte-Marie, offering youth opportunities in theatrical, art, curation, and documentation techniques.

USA 2021 91 min English Documentary Feature

Director/Producer Landon Dyksterhouse (Navajo)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

The UFC’s first flyweight, Native American champion, Nicco Montano of the Navajo Nation is mounting her first title defence. Join us on this riveting and fast paced documentary that provides a stark look at how the multi-billiondollar UFC uses its influence to exploit young, eager fighters. Warrior Spirit gives a compelling and intimate behind the scenes look at the struggles faced by the fighters on personal, professional, and systemic levels while showing the extraordinary strength and perseverance of Nicco during this life changing journey. From addressing the exploitation of Native Americans in the US to how women in a male dominated industry are treated, this is a fascinating and captivating portrait of life in the octagon that will surprise and delight fight fans and non-fight fans alike.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Canada 2021 1 min English Animated Experimental Short SOUTH

Director/Producer Kay Chan (Métis)

USA 2021 2 min Without Dialogue Music Video REVERBERATE

Will Flowers?

Ya Tseen (Back in That Time) feat. Qacung

Based on a text message from their Kokum, the artist imagines planting the seeds for future generations.

“The time is now. To my people, I come before you. My cousin once said to me to follow her dance as I sing my song, up upon for all our people. Now as we are doing this, they try to steal this knowledge. We will never forget. To my people, I come before you. Back in that time. The time is now. Let's do this.”

Kay Chan (They/He/She) is a Two-Spirit/non-binary, Tkaronto-based artist. With a mixed Métis/Chinese heritage, Kay transforms their experiences, passions, and identities into art through traditional and digital mediums.

Raven Chacon is a Diné composer, performer, and installation artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is known as a composer of chamber music as well as a performer of experimental noise music.

Friday, October 22, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2021 8 min Māori/English w English Subtitles Documentary Short Before Cousins TIFF Bell Lightbox

Director Matariki Bennett (Te Arawa/Ngati Pikiao/Ngati Whakaue) Producer Desray Armstrong (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti/Ngati Porou)

Canada 2021 5 min Tlingit w English Subtitles Documentary Short World Premiere ABOVE

Wind, Song, and Rain

Yéil (Raven)

A young wahine poet connects to her great-grandfather’s legacy. Chasing a connection beyond the poetry, she longs to see the beauty of the world through his eyes.

A walk through the dark landscape, Mohawk film director Shaunoh and Tlingit formline artist Guna Megan Jensen set out to visually tell the story of how Raven brought light to the world.

Matariki Bennett graduated from South Seas Film and Television School in 2019, and she has been working in the film and television industry ever since. In 2021, she was honoured with the Creative New Zealand Ngā Manu Pirere Award, recognizing outstanding, emerging Māori artists.

Shaunoh Anderson is a Mohawk visual artist and character-driven storyteller. His practice is grounded in authenticity and respect — for the land, its people, and their stories.

Director Shaunoh Anderson (Mohawk)

HARVEST Official Selection: Film + Video

Director/Producer Raven Chacon (Diné)

Guest Curated

other Rain), 2018

ca, Mamapara (M

Alberto Flores Vil

GUEST CURATED Jóvenes Insurgentes: Cinema of Abya Yala

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

JÓVENES INSURGENTES: Cinema of Abya Yala

Abya Yala 81 min Shorts Film Program

Artists Ayelén Lonconao Vargas (Mapuche) Grecia Arandia Ticona (Quechua) Alberto Flores Vilca (Quechua) Iván Jaripio (Embera) Frida Muenala (Kichwa-Zapoteca) CHIRAPAQ Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú (Quechua) Yaid Bolaños (Nasa) Olinda Yawar Muniz Wanderley (Tupinambá/Pataxó Hãhãhãe)

This lineup of young filmmakers from Latin America reveals films born of these lands that represent the new wave within this emerging cinema tradition committed to Abya Yala (South American) Native cultures. The selected filmmakers explore aesthetic approaches in their work, imagining and forming contemporary Native cinema as a fusion between various film genres and Native cultural traditions. In this collection, we highlight the elements that each filmmaker wants to preserve through their work, born of the need to contribute to the traditional culture of their peoples. Diversity is asserted through the filmmakers, the choices that make up these films, the use of Native tongues, the poetry of the spirit world, the importance of duality (man-woman), and above all, approval within this community-centred approach to the artform.

Curator Francisco Tarque Cañipa (Aymara)

Francisco is a film graduate from the University of Valparaiso. He has pursued his profession with an emphasis on the development and interrelation of social and artistic aspects, especially related to the Andean population in the north of Chile. With experience in a variety of audiovisual productions—features, shorts, and animated videos—he specializes as an assistant director and producer. At the same time, he has worked on numerous cultural investigation projects, education, and exhibitions of Native cinema. He is a longstanding programmer of the Arica Nativa Film Festival.

GUEST CURATED Jóvenes Insurgentes: Cinema of Abya Yala

GUEST CURATED JÓVENES INSURGENTES: Cinema of Abya Yala

Moreover, the feminine was considered as a curatorial criteria during the selection process with the majority of the films selected, establishing the role of the Native woman as creator and protagonist. We are witnessing a new phase in Latin American Native cinema, where technological and cultural limitations for women are overcome, creating a platform for debate on the issues within current thought trends. It is not only about recognizing the role of women, but also about opening spaces for introspection where ancestral ideas and customs converge; those ideas and customs that women protect, challenge, question, and strengthen within cultural tradition.

Ayelén Lonconao Vargas, Meli, 2020

Chile 2020 21 min Mapuzungun/Spanish w English Subtitles Dramatic Short

Director Ayelén Lonconao Vargas (Mapuche)

Meli

Identidad (Identity)

Melissa is a young Mapuche woman who as a child emigrated with her family, from her lof mapu to the city, in search of better living conditions. Now an adult and about to graduate, she begins to experience unexplainable situations and dreams… she has received an ancestral call.

A different and striking perspective that contrasts indigenous traditions with contemporary society in Panama. Facing the territorial and cultural threat that is modernization, a Native resistance becomes urgent in order to defend traditions.

Ayelén was born in 1993 in Valparaiso, Chile, where she spent the first years of her life. Later, she moved with her family to lof Kechukawin within the Aylla Rewe Budi region of Araucania. It is here that she grew up, taking part in socio-cultural activities and representing her Mapuche Lafkenche community.

Iván is of the Embera culture of Panama. From 2013 to the present he has been taking film workshops, motivated by Native Peoples’ rights. He is part of Dji Ta Wagadi, a cultural collective formed by the new Embera generation.

Ecuador 2021 11 min Kichwa/Spanish w English Subtitles Dramatic Short

Bolivia 2019 4 min Aymara w English Subtitles Dramatic Short

Director Grecia Arandia Ticona (Quechua)

Director Iván Jaripio (Embera)

Atrapasueños (Dreamcatcher)

Uyana (Listen)

A sweet young girl’s dreams of being with her family are shattered when she takes off her dreamcatcher to find herself facing a completely different reality.

Rosa, a Kichwa woman, awakes Cocamama, an Inca goddess, who has been desecrated by the construction of a Catholic church over her sacred temple. The goddess returns to teach the Kichwa spiritual existence. The church’s priest defies her and, as he falls into a state of madness, he has to rethink his religious views.

Grecia Arandia Ticona studied audiovisual communication in her native Bolivia, as well as cinematography in Argentina, and has developed as a director and editor on various short films. She has won multiple awards for her work. Her films have been criticized and praised for showing the more sombre reality that affects her people.

Frida is a Kichwa-Zapoteca filmmaker born in 1991. She studied Film and Video at San Francisco University in Quito. Her works explore the Kichwa world. She promoted and distributed, both nationally and internationally, her father’s film Killa. She is currently in the process of writing her first narrative feature film, Paniku.

Director Frida Muenala (Kichwa-Zapoteca)

GUEST CURATED JÓVENES INSURGENTES: Cinema of Abya Yala

Panamá 2017 4 min No Dialogue Short Experimental

Perú 2019 11 min Quechua w English Subtitles Documentary Short

Director CHIRAPAQ Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú (Quechua)

Brazil 2020 5 min Portuguese w English Subtitles Short Musical Performance

Sara Mama (Sacred Seed)

Préconceito (Prejudice)

In the Peruvian stretch of the Andes, a Quechua boy shows his unique relationship with Sara Mama (Sacred Seed) and reveals the knowledge that she embodies in her productive cycles.

music video that explores traditional Indigenous dances to the sound of A modern Indigenous music by Nelson D while discussing the issue of the body as Native territory and the prejudice and violence that still surround the Indigenous status. A performance piece with a critical view of the state of prejudice that Indigenous people live with.

CHIRAPAQ is an indigenous association, made up of Andean and Amazonian descendents, who work towards the assertion of our cultural identity and the recognition of our peoples’ rights.

Yawar is a journalist, documentarian, and filmmaker of Tupinambá origin. She began her professional career in 2014 through the THYDEWA N.G.O. working as a content producer for the Indios Online project. Her work is focused on the social problems of minority groups, especially Native communities in Brazil.

Perú 2018 18 min Quechua/Spanish w English Subtitles Documentary Short

Colombia 2019 7 min Nasa Yuwe w English Subtitles Documentary Short

Directors Yaid Bolaños (Nasa) Mateo Leguizamón

Olinda Yawar Muniz Wanderley (Tupinambá/Pataxó Hãhãhãe)

Nasa Yuwe, La Lengua Madre (Nasa Yuwe, The Mother Tongue) Yaid Bolaños, a Native anthropologist and a professor of Native languages, wants to tell, in an experimental way, the importance of preserving Nasa Yuwe, his native language, in a complicated social context where Nasa customs are being affected by migration and the cultural clash created by trying to survive in a globalized world. Yaid is a native Nasa from Cauca with a Masters in Social Anthropology. With a career in cultural and political investigation, and scriptwriting within museological and curatorial contexts and audiovisual creations, Yaid has participated in intercultural and self-education projects and the strengthening of political and organizational processes of the Native communities of Colombia.

Mamapara (Mother Rain) Honorata Vilca lives with her dog in the Peuvian High Plains. An illiterate woman of Quechua origin, she has been selling sweets for over 20 years. As the rainy season approaches, she shares her life stories until one fateful afternoon that seems to make the very skies above cry. Alberto was born in Juliaca, Puno, in 1990. He’s a director, social communicator (UNAP-Puno), and poet. In 2017, he was a resident of Transfrontera (Chile). In 2018, he was selected as the Director of Talents Buenos Aires. In 2020, he was selected to attend the 18th Talents Berlinale with his first feature, Grietas.

Director Alberto Flores Vilca (Quechua)

GUEST CURATED JÓVENES INSURGENTES: Cinema of Abya Yala

Director

Friday, October 22, 2021

Canada 82 min 2-Part Film Program

KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program Artists Gregory Coyes (Métis/Cree) Rebecca Sadowski (Métis) Tamarra Lessard Chanelle Lajoie (Métis) Amanda Strong (Michif (Metis)) Marcel Petit (Metis) Anna Celestrya-Carr (Metis/Anishinaabe) Jessie Ray Short (Métis) Cheryl L'Hirondelle (Nêhiyaw/Halfbreed) Advisors Cathy Mattes (Michif) Sherry Farrell Racette (Métis)

The KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program offers an array of works by some of Turtle Island’s most compelling Métis/Michif/Halfbreed/Mixed-Blood artists. Working in mediums and styles as unique as the landscapes which hold our stories, this selection highlights our vital and transformative relationships with each other, the waters, and the land. KAPOW/ONSHORE acknowledges the sovereign perspectives and contributions of our kin over time, while engaging both audiences and community in our journey back to uplifted unity. A Métis Kitchen Table Talk will accompany the program with Cathy Mattes, Sherry Farrell Racette, Jason Baerg, Jessica Lea Fleming, and invited community members.

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Curators

Jason Baerg is an Indigenous advocate, educator, and international interdisciplinary art practitioner. Recent curatorial projects include exhibitions with Toronto's Nuit Blanche and the University of Toronto. Baerg completed a Master of Fine Arts from Rutgers University. He is currently a tenure track professor at OCAD University. Jessica Lea Fleming (Wiisaakodewinikwe (Métis)/Scottish) Jessica Lea Fleming is an award-winning artist originally from Penetanguishene, Ontario. She creates in multi-disciplinary mediums as a means of exploring connection, identity, and land-based knowledge. She is especially drawn to examining the duality and nuance of her mixed blood as an opportunity to engage in emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual innovation.

How the Fiddle Flows follows Canada's great rivers west along the fur-trading route of the early Europeans. From the Gaspé Peninsula, north to Hudson Bay and to the Prairies, How the Fiddle Flows reveals how a distinctive Métis identity and culture were shaped over time, in particular our rich musical traditions. Featuring soaring performances by some of Canada's best known fiddlers and step dancers, and narrated by award-winning actress Tantoo Cardinal.

PART 1: TAYPWASHIK/CALL

Canada 2002 48 min Michif/Cree/French/English w English subtitles Documentary Medium

Gregory Coyes is a Métis/Cree Slow Media Visionary/Producer/Writer/Teacher. He has produced and directed programming for most of the major networks in Canada including CTV, CBC, and BRAVO. His award-winning titles include Stories From the Seventh Fire, How the Fiddle Flows, and Medicine Walker.

Director Gregory Coyes (Métis/Cree)

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GUEST CURATED KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program

Jason Baerg (Cree/Métis)

How the Fiddle Flows

PART 2: NAASHKOOMIKOO/RESPONSE Canada 2020 8 min Cree/English w English subtitles Experimental Short

Directors Rebecca Sadowski (Métis) Tamarra Lessard

Canada 2017 5 min English Animated Dramatic Short

awa iskwêw kâ-âpihkêw (The Sash Maker) A collaboration of Métis and contemporary dance, Cree and English translated poetry, and traditional finger-weaving, awa iskwêw kâ-âpihkêw (The Sash Maker) promotes the healing of long-standing cultural wounds. The work communicates a collective yearning for family, understanding, and peace. By reflecting on our past, together we can move forward as people woven from diverse strands and circumstances.

Flood Thunder, a youth, is accompanied by SpiderWoman and ThunderBird in the wake of a colonial flood.

Director Amanda Strong (Michif (Metis))

Amanda Strong is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on filmmaking, stop motion animations, and media art. Currently based on unceded Coast Salish territories also known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Strong is the owner, director, producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc. With a cross-disciplinary focus, common themes of her work are reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture.

Rebecca is an Edmonton-based Métis performer, choreographer, and dance instructor. She has recently joined the Good Women Dance Collective as a collective artist as well as a curator for the Nextfest Festival. She currently teaches dance with dancED Movement Project, and the City of Edmonton.

Director Chanelle Lajoie (Métis)

Canada 2015 2 min English Documentary Short

Métis Femme Bodies

I am Not

Métis Femme Bodies is an exploration into the experiences of what has become a repressed identity in both Indigenous and femme forms.

A project with Oskāyak High School Students and the City of Saskatoon.

Chanelle Lajoie is a Queer Métis multi-disciplinary artist honoring, engaging, and amplifying the voices of their Indigiqueer communities through storytelling in the forms of printmaking, photography, and moving-image on Treaty 1 Territory, the lands of their ancestors.

Metis artist Marcel Petit is an independent producer, filmmaker, actor, photographer and playwright from Saskatoon. He has several film/video works to his name including short dramatic pieces to feature documentaries. Recent theatre work includes Salt Baby, Reckoning and Blow Wind. He also runs the Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op, an amazing youth centre in Saskatoon.

Director Marcel Petit (Metis)

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GUEST CURATED KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program

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Canada 2019 6 min English Documentary Short

Canada 2012 3 min English Experimental Short

Director Anna Celestrya-Carr (Metis/Anishinaabe)

Canada 2015 2 min English Documentary Short

Tik-A-Lee-Kick

I am

Tik-A-Lee-Kick is an honest and candid telling of a young Aboriginal woman’s perspective on the role of the Little People.

A project with Oskāyak High School Students and the City of Saskatoon.

Anna-Celestrya Carr is a Metis/Anishinaabe artist, filmmaker, writer, dancer and speaker. She graduated from both the Vancouver Film School and the National Screen Institute’s New Voices program in Canada. While at NSI she created Dreamcatcher: A short dramatic fantasy of Aboriginal mythology. She has previously attended the University of Manitoba School of Art.

Metis artist Marcel Petit is an independent producer, filmmaker, actor, photographer and playwright from Saskatoon.

Canada 2016 7 min English Dramatic Short

Director Jessie Ray Short (Métis)

Canada 2020 3 min Cree/English VR

Sweet Night

The Beauty Within

A young Métis woman reconnects with her Indigenous ancestry and begins a journey of self-discovery when she learns about sweetgrass from her nonNative friend.

The Beauty Within is an immersive, interactive new work by Indigenous interdisciplinary artist Cheryl L’Hirondelle, created as elaborations on the songs she wrote in collaboration with incarcerated and detained populations in Saskatchewan’s correctional facilities as part of a larger body of work.

Jessie Ray Short is an artist, filmmaker, and independent curator of Métis, Ukrainian, and German ancestry whose cross disciplinary practice involves memory, visual culture, and Métis history. Jessie Ray holds an MA degree from Brock University with a focus on contemporary Métis visual culture and will be starting a PhD in September 2021 at the University of Regina.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle is an interdisciplinary, community-engaged artist, a singer/ songwriter, and critical thinker whose family roots are from Papaschase First Nation, amiskwaciy wâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) and Kikino Metis Settlement, Alberta. Her work critically investigates and articulates a dynamism of Nêhiyawin (Cree worldview) in contemporary time-place with a practice that incorporates Indigenous language(s), audio, video, virtual reality, the olfactory, music, and audience/user participation to create immersive environments towards ‘radical inclusion.’

Director Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Nêhiyaw/Halfbreed )

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GUEST CURATED KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program

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Director Marcel Petit (Metis)

GUEST CURATED Community Exhibitions

s n o i t s i n b i o i h t x i E b i y h t i x E n u y t i m C mmun om Co

Tania Willard, These sto

STTLMNT Project er the full moon, 2020

ries were spawned aft

SĀMOAN HXSTORIES, SCREENS, AND INTIMACIES II (HISTOIRES, ÉCRANS, ET INTIMITÉS SAMOANS II)

A Space Gallery 401 Richmond St. W. Suite 110 October 19, 2021 – December 11, 2021

Artists Christopher Ulutupu (Sāmoan/Niuean/German) DB Amorin (Sāmoan/Azorean Portuguese) Brian Fuata (Sāmoan) Isi (Sāmoan/Uvean) Louisa Afoa (Sāmoan/Pākehā) Pelenakeke Brown (Sāmoan/Pākehā) Talia Smith (Cook Island/Sāmoan/Pākehā)

Sāmoan Hxstories, Screens, and Intimacies II spans 2013 – 2021, focusing attention on artists Christopher Ulutupu, DB Amorin, Brian Fuata, Isi, Louisa Afoa, Pelenakeke Brown, and Talia Smith whose works process colonial displacement and diaspora as well as embodied visual and performative languages. These artists attest to the complexity of navigating the present capitalist order and projecting into sovereign futurities beyond the hierarchies of race, class, power, and anthropology.

Christopher Ulutupu’s practice explores landscape, photography, and colonial narratives. He seeks to recontextualize and reimagine stereotypes through video and performance, offering new explorations of colonization and diaspora. DB Amorin is an artist from Honolulu currently living and working in New Jersey. He works within video, expanded audio, and augmented environments and is a founding member of Public Annex. 108

Brian Fuata works in the improvisation of live or mediated performance, writing and objects. He uses performance, persona, and public speaking to produce a dumb zone of dramatic affects.

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Louisa Afoa holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the Auckland University of Technology. Louisa co-founded the now archived art criticism platform #500words and is co-director of the artist-run space RM Gallery. Pelenakeke Brown is an interdisciplinary, disabled artist whose practice spans art, writing, and performance. She is currently the Artistic Director of Touch Compass, a disability-led performance company. Talia Smith is an artist and curator interested in notions of time, memory, and ruin, with a particular focus on photographic and time-based practices.

Curator Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi (Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese) Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi is a Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, and researcher working between Australia and Canada whose practice spans performance, moving image, writing, and installation.

Brian Fuata, a house besieged (Preposition tweaked), 2020

GUEST CURATED Community Exhibitions

Isi is an emerging artist based between Tacoma and Honolulu.

Trinity Square Video 401 Richmond St. W. Suite 121 October 8, 2021 – November 13, 2021

STTLMNT IS NOT HERE Artists Raven Chacon (Dine') Candice Hopkins (Tlingit) Tania Willard (Secwépemc) Dayna Danger (Métis/Saulteaux/Polish) Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota)

STTLMNT IS NOT HERE practices Indigenization through an evolved artist strategy of occupation (digital and physical). Presenting Indigenous resilience and intersection in action based work to reclaim space, we disseminate our post-colonial artworks through the present to stake a radical, visionary claim on the future, creating our own living archive.

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, installation artist, and educator from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, whose internationally renowned work ranges from chamber music to experimental noise and large-scale installations. Candice Hopkins is a curator, writer, and researcher interested in history, art, Indigeneity, and their intersections. Originally from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation. Tania Willard, Secwépemc Nation and settler heritage, is an artist and curator. Their work is invested in intersectional ecological concerns and land-based art practices centred in Indigenous territory, community, and knowledge. Dayna Danger a Tio’tia:ke, Two-Spirit, Métis, and Saulteaux/Anishinaabe visual artist, activist, and drummer. They are a visual artist who claims space with their human-scale work to challenge perceptions of power, representation, and sexuality. Through monumental installations and social collaboration, Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota) interweaves performance and political action to communicate stories about twenty-first century Indigeneity, producing large-scale projects globally.

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Cannupa Hanska Luger. Image courtesy of c:3Initiative Photo by Sam Gehrke, 2019

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Digital Indigiqueer: Trans Transmedia Artists Elijah Forbes (Odawa) Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/Comanche) Ty Defoe (Oneida/Ojibwe)

Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre 32 Lisgar St. October 19, 2021 – October 24, 2021

Digital Indigiqueer is a collection of works by transgender Indigenous transmedia artists based in the so-called USA. While one goal was spotlighting and lifting artists in an often overlooked demographic, another was creating community and building networks between transgender artists. This iteration of Digital Indigiqueer is entirely trans masculine artists, which was unintentional but resulted in a great collection of artists working with digital tools and media arts.

Elijah Forbes is an Indigenous, Two-Spirit creative that focuses on bringing Indigenous storytelling and transgender joy into the world through his work. He has previously worked with Twitter to create artwork for the Trans Awareness Week hashtag and counts himself lucky to have worked with so many Indigenous creative teams to bring representation to new fields. Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/Comanche) (he/they) is a TwoSpirit, Emmy award-winning creator based in Seattle, Washington. They recently graduated magna cum laude from the Santa Fe University of Art & Design with a BFA in Film Production. Ty Defoe is a citizen of the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations and considers himself a shape-shifter, bending in and out of artistic forms to vanguard against a westernized binary system, and celebrating the celestial force of rainbows.

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Hexe Fey, Tobacco Flower in May, 2020

Based in Seattle, Washington, USA, Hexe has exhibited and taught workshops in Seattle, Berlin, Kuala Lumpur, Vienna, and London, and is currently a candidate for an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Decolonial Arts Praxis at Goddard College. Hexe is the creator of the interactive fiction game, Cursed Task about the struggle of writing an artist bio.

GUEST CURATED Community Exhibitions

Curator Hexe Fey (Lakota)

YYZ Artists’ Outlet 401 Richmond St. W. Suite 140 September 18, 2021 – November 27, 2021

Suviittuq! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ • Can’t be helped/Too bad! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Stories Are In Our Bones Janine Windolph (Cree/Atikamekw)

Kablusiak (Inuvialuk)

This installation is my attempt at working through my family’s experience with residential schools, the idea of trauma tourism, and managing discomfort with absurdity. Materials include a plastic doll, a plate and cup from Grollier Hall, a custom printed photo backdrop of Tuktoyaktuk cemetery, Halloween music, and a Halloween decoration.

Kablusiak is an Inuvialuk artist/curator who uses Inuk ingenuity to create work in a variety of mediums including, but not limited to, lingerie, soapstone, Sharpies, bedsheets, felt, and words.

Kablusiak, Suviittuq! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ • Can’t be helped/Too bad! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , 2021

Gallery 44 and imagineNATIVE present Janine Windolph’s Stories Are In Our Bones (2019), a short film centred around Windolph taking her young sons fishing with their kokum (grandmother), a residential school survivor who retains deep knowledge of the land. For both women, passing on traditional practices to the boys is an act of resistance. Re-presenting two years later for the 2021 imagineNATIVE Festival, Gallery 44 has invited Windolph and her sons Corwyn and Dawalri to reflect on their experiences of the film in two commissioned pieces of writing.

Janine Windolph is a filmmaker, educator, and storyteller currently working at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity as Associate Director of Indigenous Arts. Windolph has also worked as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission story gatherer with her colleague Trudy Stewart, in particular hearing stories about the Regina Indian Industrial School (RIIS) that operated just outside of Regina from 1891 to 1910.

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GUEST CURATED Community Exhibitions

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Gallery 44 401 Richmond St. W. Suite 120 October 19, 2021 – October 24, 2021

Janine Windolph, Stories Are In Our Bones, 2019

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imagineNATIVE 2021

COMMUNITY We Circle Back to Move into the Future

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Alanis Obom

tor Murray

r to Sena win, Honou

Sinclair, 20

Community

Peer to Peer Conversation

We Circle Back to Move into the Future By Léuli Eshrãghi Cannupa Hanska Luger

CHL - I’m curious to begin with a discussion of the spaces we inhabit and move between. In my case, I was born on the Standing Rock Reservation in a town called Fort Yates that juts out into the Missouri River. My mother is an artist and she took us kids to the American Southwest to access the Indigenous art market. I experienced a multiplicity of worlds but didn’t feel fully accepted or that I fit into any one space. LE - I definitely relate. I was born in Yuwibara Nation territory on the central coast of Queensland but grew up on lots of different First Nations territories along the eastern seaboard of what’s currently called Australia and also on our ancestral lands in Sāmoa. It was really amazing to have this experience of diaspora while also being grounded in family and tradition. That’s the kind of “within and without” experience that I have. CHL - Through a colonial lens, “belonging” has been transformed from a verb into a noun; instead of belonging to something, something belongs to the colonizer: the colonizer owns their belongings. As an artist, I am constantly being objectified; the things I exhibit are traded as commodities and there’s something quite toxic about that exchange. By consciously participating in it, I’m working towards Indigenous alternatives but I am simultaneously reinforcing it.

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LE - You know, we’re speaking the same language (English) but in this conversation we’re bringing together different knowledge systems from your Nations and from mine. Recently, I have been thinking about ways of articulating worldviews that are in opposition to this commodifing world order which is only 500 years old; ours are 1000s of years old!

LE - It makes me think about the fixedness of Western knowledge compared to the reality that we were never fixed. Yes, some villages were there all the time, but people were always voyaging. Ethno-linguists are always perplexed about how our headdresses look the same in the Amazon as in Tahiti and Hawai‛i and we are like, “Well, you know, the Great Ocean is our highway.” ‛Epeli Hau‛ofa and others have written about “small islands” as the confetti of empire, scattered far from the “centres” in Europe and North America. These notions are really at odds with what we know — that whales are our ancestors; sharks and taro are our ancestors. Part of what I’ve learned from growing up in the diaspora is that there is wisdom in movement. Sometimes you have to leave and go and find something to bring it back. My dear yak tit‛u tit‛u yak tiłhini friend Sarah Biscarra Dilley says, “You think you’re in control of your own life? The ancestors are just playing you.” Sarah and I found each other at a Banff residency and then we just began chasing all the lines, like, “You have a story about this and I have a story about this. We must be cousins!” Because we are so heavily colonized, even within our own minds, I’m only able to fully express my Indigeneity in relation to others. CHL - Even on Turtle Island, which is a big continent, I’ve felt this isolation. We are an archipelago in a sea of whiteness, in a sea of colonialism; each reservation is its own kind of little island where unique cultures and practices exist. It’s rare that they touch, even on this land mass, but of course we do find

This notion has been driving my work towards Indigenous Futurism or what I refer to as science fiction. As a young person I was obsessed with sci-fi films and books; I loved the genre, but I never saw myself represented, and if I did, it was as a primitive Native other or as an oracle. And so what really drives my future-dreaming work is the desire to have a truly honest conversation with my ancestors and for our technology to bypass the present. LE - Yes, as artists in the global art system within capitalism, there is some agency and I like to think of it as this intercultural space. Culture is always evolving and innovating, even with the fixedness of colonial thinking. As other Sāmoans and I are trying to voice what we want, we can say, “Oh it’s just art projects.” I get away with some ideas because of that. It’s been really good for me to read and be immersed in Indigenous futurist thinking from different cultures. So much of what our ancestors did was already super science fiction; it doesn’t have to be some spaceship in Babylon 5. I’m reminded of when Carl Sagan talked about Star Wars, how everyone in power is white, that they seem so much like people from Earth. CHL - A lot of science fiction reinforces our present models, so much so that the world’s billionaires are going into space on this super-colonial trip; which I support. I’m like, “You should totally go, it’s gonna be awesome. And take your colonizer buddies too,” LE - Just take that one percent with you!

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CHL - The thing that is often missing from science fiction is exactly what you said: relationships and intersections. Culture is developed by the land itself; as Indigenous people, we know the protocols, the ceremonies, and the language. Our phenotypes are literally embedded in the landscape that we inhabit and there’s incredible amounts of information that can be shared through that timeless memory. LE - And with this space race happening, I find it really arresting to think about this unmoored global minority running the planet in disarray. CHL - This is the trauma of dislocation. If you don’t belong to a place, you’re not going to stay on the planet. That idea of going is the colonial model. The thing is: they don’t have new technology, they have really old technology with really new mechanisms for it. I see no difference between a bird song and my iPhone or a satellite. This technology is all communication, a really old technology, but the mechanism is advancing. LE - I think about interpreting the weather by the ripples on the river, lake, or ocean. You don’t need your iPhone to then read the weather on an app. Meanwhile, we mine lithium and abuse human rights to have our phones. I think about the cost effectiveness and real worth of our choices, how we can innovate our cultures and bring them into the future. I think we’ve had far too much air time for Europe but, you know, there’s this false lineage to ancient Greece that actually comes through the Islamic scholars in Baghdad and it’s never acknowledged. It’s been through multiple rounds of translation, all of these works, so it’s creating a specific white supremacist connection through the “classics.”

COMMUNITY We Circle Back to Move into the Future

CHL - I think the interesting thing is that because colonization has been perpetuated so heavily, it’s hard for the colonizer to see that it is their own legacy of horror. They have to ask themselves, “Was it worth it?”

each other and come together. So that idea of being fixed, not only in space but in time, is a Westernization thing.

Peer to Peer Conversation We Circle Back to Move into the Future

CHL - I like being able to imagine a more honest alternative to that whole narrative. There’s something sad in our perpetuated narrative’s hopelessness. It feels like we are being taught to accept that the future is dark and our planet is dying. Even if we only live once, we don’t live alone and we must be responsible for that. We are borrowing this place from future generations, and so we must act accordingly; we can teach that instead of hopelessness. LE - Yeah, like understanding that our bodies are not our own — that our ancestors and our descendants own them. Whether we have biological children or not, we are in community. I think that’s foundational teaching for so many Indigenous knowledge systems. CHL - There is a perpetuity. The myths generated in the US are incredibly toxic — rugged individualism, patriarchy, and whiteness — and, moreover, they don’t even know what was sacrificed. I sympathize that their greatgrandparents sacrificed belonging to a place in order to reap the benefits and the privileges of whiteness. I think there is a reckoning with that need to belong that is coming to a head. LE - I think that we’ve already been through the desperation phase and so many of our peoples are still in it; it’s somewhere where we already are and have been. Especially the first generations of contact and warring with Europeans and some East Asian empires — that lack of hope led to the destruction from within and we didn’t see a point in going on.

LE - It kind of brings me to thinking about the project that I’m working on with the diaspora with artists living in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. The idea is that people can go online and access the works and see interviews and have a cultural experience that’s not about us living in darkness for thousands of years until Christianity arrived. For me it’s not even decolonial; it’s just trying to imagine where we need to be already. In my practice, I try to imagine the near future, maybe 2025, because so much can change so quickly. CHL - We are in the future and the present. I want to go back to what you had mentioned about a time when colonized people were like, “There’s no point.” Even with so much brutality, Indigenous people remain. We are hard to perish; we don’t give up well. By talking about the future, we are acknowledging the effort and the suffering and the strength of our ancestors.

LE - I was just thinking how there are two words in French for future — there’s future and à venir which literally means “to come.” And then in Sāmoan, the word for future is lumina‛i. But luma is a direction as well, but then taeao means “morning” and “tomorrow,” so it’s also a play on which direction you’re going. I want to circle back to Noelani Goodyear-Ka‛opua & Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada who write about futurities and particularly Indigenous practices of futuremaking as a disruption to western, linear understandings of temporality. For Sāmoans and others in the Great Ocean, we’re still on the journey of returning; we’re returning to interpret the teachings that our ancestors are sending us through dreams. CHL - It’s all a matter of how we listen, how we see: these are technologies. There are songs that help us understand the ripples in the water, songs that describe landscapes, dances about belonging to a place. It’s important that we figure out how to describe technology and interpret it to one another. Perhaps we are charged with that responsibility from our ancestors, to make connections that reinforce our connectedness. I don’t know where I end and you begin and that is beautiful. LE - We are made of so much water and this planet is composed of mostly water. Many Indigenous languages don’t really differentiate their territories between land, sky, water, underground, above ground, human, or other beings. It’s all this beautiful network of relationships and that’s how we get home: we circle back to these teachings and relationships.

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CHL - Yes, we circle back to move into the future. COMMUNITY We Circle Back to Move into the Future

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CHL - In terms of identity, we have to describe our function as who we are, not what we are. We have to dismantle the fixedness with action. I was fortunate to be raised by my mother and my grandparents and learn our traditions and ceremony. I was born in 1979 and the year before it had finally become legal for us to practice our spirituality in the United States. I am the first generation that can finally live our spiritual ways. I didn’t really understand this privilege until I got older.

That’s the power of future-forward thinking — it doesn’t exist but it will. It’s like deciding what seeds you are going to plant. I may not be certain what the fruit will look like, but I know how to put it in the soil and care for it. But I don’t get to eat those fruits; they are for the next generations.

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Bawaadan Collective, Monologue Harmonic, 2021

Reflection

KAPOW/ONSHORE

Programmed works pg 100 – pg 105

2021 By Jason Baerg Jessica Lea Fleming

Kapow is Michif for “onshore.” As we engage with one another and our myriad experiences as Métis/Michif/Half-Breed/Mixed-Blood people, we return from the waterways, from a long journey, back to our homelands. Through this, we find ourselves currently positioned in the precarious and fertile space of the shoreline. An area rich with biological and geological exchange, one that highlights our vital and transformative relationships with each other, the waters, and the land.

Kapow Do you hear that? Creaking between the laughter Patiently resting on the shore

For this, the KAPOW/ONSHORE: Métis Program, we draw on larger curatorial themes for this year’s imagineNATIVE, activating liminal spaces where land meets water, and we encounter ourselves at a pivotal time in our Nation’s history. As community members, we turn to our artists and Knowledge Keepers to think about temporality: past, present, future, and our immediate next steps toward uplifted unity and empowerment.

Boats, like bones, Can dry out and turn brittle Can surprise you with their strength Bones, like boats Carry songs within them Carry warmth and welcome storms

Though the canon of Métis works is as diverse and unique as the ground that holds our ways and stories, these selected voices (both seminal and sprouting) speak to the sobering truth and exuberant humour of our ancestors. Aunties, uncles, and cousins who continue to make our path, like Howard Adams, Marjorie Beaucage, Shane Belcourt, Terril Calder, Maria Campbell, Danis Goulet, Loretta Todd, and so many more, have been offering stories to share our unique point of view for decades. In this program, we revisit some of the early musical influences that shaped the culture of ᐅᑎᐯᒥᓯᐘᐠ “the people who own themselves” with Greg Coyes’ seminal work How the Fiddle Flows. We relive the challenges and weight of colonial forces in Amanda Strong’s much-celebrated Flood. We unite in our strength as a Nation with Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s The Beauty Within and Anna Celestrya-Carr’s Tik-A-Lee-Kick, which give permission to play joyfully in the sometimes ephemeral/untouchable nature of our history and present day experience as Métis people. Through the generosity and courage of these storymakers, our unflappable lens has evolved and expanded. As we carve out space for ourselves, we unearth deeper complexities within our understanding of identity and belonging, as is candidly expressed in Métis Femme Bodies by Chanelle Lajoie and Sweet Night by Jessie Ray Short. By allowing greater vulnerabilities forward, we also make space for others. To that end, we are delighted to bring new voices into the circle with provoking, collaborative works by Marcel Petit, I am and I am not, as well as Rebecca Sadowski’s indelible piece awa iskwêw kâ-âpihkêw (The Sash Maker).

It was an honour to put together this program and insert the expansive, interdisciplinary gestures driven through song, dance, animation, narrative, weaving, testimonial, reliving, and projecting from past to future. The cinematic proposition in this program is as experimental as it is narrative, offering nuanced and overt personal, cultural, sexual, and political positionalities. KAPOW/ONSHORE is situated to stir conversation and create a formal entry point for serious engagement and inclusion of Métis storytellers to be recognized and welcomed for our sovereign perspectives and contributions. Through the validation of our ongoing practices and the Métis lens as one that is contributing, compelling, and distinct, we can be part of the continued uprising of a resilient, healthy, and united community. 125

Under the gaze of Grandmother and galaxies Boats pulled up Creaking like old bows Safely onshore Blood mixed, blessed and stirring open Flames flickering on full mugs

Now is an unfixed time, where deep reflections ripple out in the waters behind us and yet the future on the horizon is still to be determined. We lean on the intuition of our storytellers and artists for their creative articulations over many decades, offering guidance and interpretations for the good ways forward. We hope this program inspires something new for you as individuals and for all of us collectively as a Nation of beautiful, distinct Indigenous people.

Here we are gathering Cousin Koozain Koozinn Do you hear us? Let’s rest a bit and visit Safely and together Kapow Oobor di loo Onshore Home ᒦᑭᐋᐧᒼ

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Aara di loo Kapow Sweetgrass drifts on gentle winds Fwayn seukrii Eternally inviting Humble and patient Growing low in the wetlands around our camps Roots tender and intertwined Flanking our first pathways

Care Kinstellations

Creative Reflections from the Indigenous Community

In reflecting on Care, we asked community members to answer one of three questions: 1. Why do you cultivate care? 2. What can we carry forward from our first teachers? 3. How can we, collectively and as a community, practice care?

Community Offerings Kaya Joan I carry forward the lesson of listening. Through listening, I grow deeper into my roots, understanding what my responsibilities are to the land and to my community.

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My first teachers taught me to listen past the sounds of cars and rumbling subways, to the ravine river lined with stones in steel cages. Those grandfathers taught me strength in numbers and that the metal shaping the land will one day rust and decay. The stinging nettle climbing up concrete walls against vibrant graffiti tags taught me medicine can be found everywhere. Kahrhakón:ha singing from the tops of telephone poles taught me to use my voice and speak my truth. Although my first teachers were tangled in the mess of smog and concrete that suffocates much of T’karonto, they still showed up for me. So I deepen into my roots, harnessing my medicine to show up for all my relations, to ensure their future is abundant, and that they feel safe, held, and cared for.

Christopher Grant We as a collective can only practice care by nourishing and acknowledging that all health — whether mental, physical, or spiritual — begins with encouraging the individual on a path that heals their pain, and in turn, an understanding that the need to give back is natural. Love is the only way you can create strong communities. A community is weak if the individuals are suffering, angry, or resentful. Encouraging open dialogue and giving people who hang on the fringes chances to express themselves is what leads to steady healing. As a Mi’Kmaw person with schizophrenia, I have had many challenges and traumas in my 24 years, and I too used to be bitter and hateful. The only thing that saved me was unconditional love, an effort in listening, and letting me express myself. My community knows I hallucinate daily and nobody is mean to me. Now I have a place in my community and I have no reason to judge, hate, or self deprecate. Love yourself, be authentic, and healing becomes the byproduct.

My first teacher was my grandmother. She inspired me and raised me. She was the kindest person I ever met. She wanted me to learn. Physically, she didn’t do much because she was so old; she was over 100. But emotionally and mentally she could talk to me. She expected my stepdad to take me on hunting trips and teach me how to survive in the bush. Care, well, the way I look at it is, it’s what I bring with me. Take the survival skills and teaching tools forward. The sweat lodge will help you with your emotions, but first you need to learn to build it to use it for yourself and the other people you help. For the city folks, it’s different. They learn different skills from their Elders. Those urban youth, they need guidance. We need to let our youth go and explore with other people. Not just other young people. They need to be mentored by being shown, not lectured. There are lessons everywhere. Explore. We need people to help our young people learn to explore. Take them under your wing a little. We have to care for the next generation, no matter where they live. Give them those survival skills, as well as our teachings. If a young person knows this, knows how to make a birch bark basket, and one day they find themselves lost in the bush, suddenly, they have a bowl. They have a helper. They can survive anything because they were given care.

Emily Henderson We forget sometimes how much of what we do is just care dressed up as other things. A city is held together by the criss-crossing paths of people trying to feed their families. Ikajuqtigiinniq: we are working together for a common cause of care (even when we do not realize it).

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We find ourselves defined by care or lack thereof — who we care for, who cares for us. We are acutely aware of who we have neglected and scarred from the times we have found ourselves in a scarcity of care. Care comes dressed up as responsibility, as duty, as boundaries. We think of care as being a soft place that envelops us when perhaps care is more rigid, more consistent, a structure that binds us all together. We practice care as a community by reconceptualizing ourselves beyond the bond of our own bodies and remember that we belong to a web of crisscrossing paths, all trying to feed their families.

Vivien Lily Munoz-Johnson There are a bunch of ways that we as a community can practice care. I can't write about all of them, but I can suggest that we practice care by helping those less fortunate. It doesn't have to be in a big way, something as small as donating a nickel to a charity of our choice; any small donation could be huge. Personally, what I have done to practice care is to try to make friends and make smiles everywhere I go.

COMMUNITY Care Kinstellations

Niá:wen, all my relations.

Ma-Nee Chacaby

Care Kinstellations Creative Reflections from the Indigenous Community

Phyllis Grant

Keisha Wapahkesis

I cultivate care as a way of honouring my ancestors while continuing to clear a path that nurtures the present. This is how we have created a strong circle of resilience in our communities. It is also a way to create safety for vulnerable members who often become our strongest leaders. Caring is the practice of having a positive vision for the future. It is a way to remind each other that we are human and should be treated as such. Interconnection is the core of who we are and cultivating care is how we maintain our freedom. This ensures that the visionaries of our communities have access to meaningful resources and are able help their communities while sharing their dreams. We are in tune with our ancestors, our families, and ourselves.

I harvested medicines this weekend, on Treaty Six Territory, nehiyâwak ikwa Métis/otipemisiwak askihk. Having grown up urban—in Toronto, around the world—and disconnected from my community and homelands through the Sixties Scoop, this is not something I have had access to my whole life. My life has taught me sîpîthihtamowin (patience). It made me happy knowing these are the lands my ancestors have gathered medicines from since time immemorial. My teachings that I carry emphasize reciprocity. The teaching that I carry, taught to me by nohkom and my community, is kisîwâtisiwin (kindness). As I picked medicines, I thought about how excited I will be to share these with others in kinship. These are teachings many have forgotten because of colonization and the indoctrination of western values. I am glad to be home, to unlearn and learn from our first teacher, kitaskinaw. My language that carries my teachings connects me to niwahkōmākinak (past, present, and future). It connects me to the way nicāpānak (my great-grandparents/my great-grandchildren) saw/will see and related/will relate to the world. These are teachings that I hope my ancestors will pass on.

Kairyn Bureau There are certain things that are essential to life, like water and food; however, we often forget that love and care are essential, too. When you care for something, you foster growth within it—when you love them, they feel it. These are some teachings we receive in my culture. Do no harm. Always give back what you take. Respect all living things. I cultivate care in my community because it is essential, and because I have experience knowing what it feels like to be without that care.

But outside threats: colonization, assimilation, genocide, religion, and racism threaten these teachings every day. We as Two-Spirit people must protect and care for our communities, just as we have done since time immemorial. That’s why I cultivate care. It is my duty as a Two-Spirit person. I am reclaiming this role for those that could not. I am blessed with this responsibility.

Rob Lackie I promote and cultivate CARE for many reasons. I would like individuals, families, and communities to feel like everyone belongs everywhere, regardless of their circumstances. I think it is critical for everyone to work together to make themselves, their families, and their communities stronger and more resilient but most importantly, healthier.

In all the years I’ve worked with Indigenous communities, it is the collective that is paramount. We’re communal people. Also profoundly important is our love and respect for our Elders. Their wisdom and guidance are our lifeline through both storms and calm periods of our lives. Recently an Elder said we must now work together as human, as well as Indigenous, beings. When our Elders give direct guidance, we listen. Whether or not we agree is another matter. In times of extreme difficulty, such as the recent COVID-19 epidemic, it is the whole that is most important and ceremonial practice is where we take refuge. Our children, one of four valued bundles, are always protected within the inner circle. The other bundles are youth, adults, and Elders. Ekosi, hiy hiy.

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As Two-Spirit people, we are taught that we are special; we are gifts from the Creator, Wakan Taka, to bring mediation, balance, education, medicine, and advocacy to the community. These are specific and vital community roles. Two-Spirit people, with the ability to move between worlds, bring new perspectives. They are believed to have divine power and spiritual prowess. Many ceremonies or events in the community cannot happen until a TwoSpirit person is present. They offer you the gift of being able to see the world through a Two-Spirit lens. They are sacred and necessary to the community.

iess E mie om no con Eco

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ECONOMIES: Indigenous Economies

imagineNATIVE 2021

Lindsay McIntyre

, seeing her, 2020

Indigenous Economies

Reflections: Connect

By Jamie-Lee Reardon

By imagineNATIVE Institute Participants

Watching the world close and everyone slow down while the days melt into each other has us living in a different time. As we reengage with society, we can take the opportunity to reimagine what is important. Indigenous communities are beginning to see stories that center characters and narratives that remind us of ourselves, our families, and our communities. More than just films and television shows, this content mirrors our values and lived experiences simply by being authentically, Indigenous-made.

The catalogue of Indigenous film and television works continues to grow exponentially. Central to this movement is care for the community, the land, and the protection of what is shared as integral parts of our original economies. The value of authentic storytelling is being recognized and funded by those in positions of power, setting strong examples for evolving industry standards. Thanks to the dedication, investment, hard work, innovation, pushback, and creativity of Indigenous storymakers over many decades, the shift in power, in voice, finally feels tangible. Teachings are braided into our lives, extending to how we interact, intake, and produce. Diverse Indigenous Nations spanning the globe have taken capacitybuilding into their own hands, as Indigenous people always have, sharing their skills and gifts with a new generation to ensure our continued survival and success. Looking back at work done before us highlights the importance of believing and working towards a future where every Afro-Indigenous, Black Native, and Indigenous person grows up feeling seen and knows that their story is important. We look forward to life in a new world: one that centres our people on screen and off, one that is led by our voices, experiences, and values. The imagineNATIVE Institute would like to take this opportunity to express gratitude to all the applicants who have applied to the Institute labs and mentorships, all of the participants dedicated to their stories, and every Industry Leader who has devoted their time to the professional development of Indigenous creatives. Together, we are changing the narrative.

Evelyn Pakinewatik Evelyn Pakinewatik is an emerging artist and award-winning filmmaker from Nipissing First Nation who participated in the imagineNATIVE Directors Lab.

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Anguti Johnston I'm writing this from my couch in Iqaluit, where it is raining and my dog sits nearby wondering if I'll be on the typee-thingy all day again. Well, you know what, Bowie, yes I will, because the pandemic has made it quite hard to find any kind of consistent work or office space. Sorry, Bowie, I’m trying to be an artist, a writer, so I have to spend my day home alone with you in case I think of something good to write. Your water bowl looks a little empty … I guess I can take another break. The rain has slowed and I do like me the smell of the tundra after a good rain. Replace rain with snow or sun, replace Bowie with either of my teenage kids or replace typee-thingy with books and you can see the pattern here. Working and writing through the pandemic has not been easy, but it hasn’t been terribly hard either. Working from home this past year has really pushed me to change my habits. The best solution I have found is to completely invert my schedule as the only quiet time I am finding, in a home with a rambunctious family, is in the wee hours when everyone else is asleep. Also, my sentences have become somewhat run-off-ish.

ECONOMIES Reflections

ECONOMIES Indigenous Economies

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Through continuing with the imagineNATIVE Institute year-round labs and mentorships, we have witnessed Indigenous creatives continue to carry rich and original stories in the most unpredictable and unusual times. Working closely with industry leaders, the Institute aims to foster the professional development of Indigenous filmmakers by providing them with opportunities curated to their needs and goals as Directors, Script Writers and Editors, Producers, and so much more, whether project-based or for their filmmaking career.

Reflections Connect

Kiley May

Roberto Fatal

In 2019, I was about to embark on my artistic career’s most creative and productive time. Exciting opportunities and projects arose, including the imagineNATIVE/Charles Street Video Residency. I felt validated as a creator and storyteller. I felt like I had arrived: my time to shine had come, my career was taking off. Everything looked spectacular and promising.

This is a conceptual sketch that incorporates many symbolic elements found in my feature film, Digital Tobacco for Electric Homies, which I conceptualized after a year of isolation and uncertainty during COVID-19. These symbols include Life and Death, sacred water and rain, my queer and Two-Spirit communities, my Raramuri and Ute ancestors being channelled through my Mexicano Dia de los Muertos practices, the gambling we do with our lives in this world, and our growth that comes in the face of the threats that whiz by our heads each day as Indigenous peoples living in a colonial world.

And then the pandemic hit. Quarantine happened. Fear and uncertainty were in the air everywhere. Everything halted, including our short film in preproduction, scheduled to premiere at imagineNATIVE 2020. Time stopped, shifted, passed. Then, things started back up. My project timelines and completion dates got scrambled, and the deadlines overlapped. Everything became stressful and overwhelming. Eventually, my depression was triggered, affecting my productivity. I struggled to meet my goals. Sometimes I felt so overwhelmed that I thought I’d have a breakdown or burnout… But I persisted. I pushed and worked through it with tears and fears and uncertainty, while feeling guilt, self-flagellation, self-blame, and shame. Fortunately, I found solace and support with a fantastic team of producers at Braided Sisters Productions — Joanna, Fonna, and Emmet. Making our films through this pandemic impacted and challenged us. We dealt with mental health challenges while being overworked and experiencing loss of motivation and frustration. But we caught each other and held each other up. 134

Through it all, we were tenacious. Despite the hardships, it’s been a privilege to create this beautiful art and tell essential stories together, bringing new life to an industry that needs change.

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Digital Tobacco for Electric Homies conceptual sketch

I am IsKwew KaTawKoNak IsKoTeNo — Woman Who Holds Fire — an InNiNew (Cree) and a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation. I currently reside with my family on the Unceded and Ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. Just before the world went on hiatus, I lost my dear brother Steven, a kind spirit who was my biggest cheerleader. His love and support kept me grounded. Only now are we holding Ceremony for him. Over the last year, we have attempted several times only to be faced with restrictions which prevented us from celebrating his life. Steven will be at peace very soon. On a positive note, I have completed my PhD, and soon after asserting my research, I left academia to focus on my film practice. Needless to say, I have raised my four incredible sons, so now it’s time to reignite my fire and feed my soul with creativity. I have several projects on the horizon ready to be birthed into this new world, where we have witnessed truth telling, awakenings, and powerful transformations. I am hopeful for the future, and I look forward to continuing my contribution to Indigenous cinema.

Roberto Fatal

Medium: Ink and paper, digital transfer and paint. 2021

ECONOMIES Reflections

Jules Koostachin

Reflections Connect

Dana Solomon When the pandemic hit in early 2020, there was this immense wave of fear that swept over the entire globe. Collectively, we were left not knowing what a few days ahead may look like and the constant promise that each lockdown would be the last evoked more fear. I had to learn a new way to survive as auditions stopped and opportunities were halted. The things that had once set me on fire as an artist were disappearing with no end in sight. I had become frozen by the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic. June 14, 2020, I attended the Black Lives Matter march in Halton Hills that was organized by Halton Hills Alliance for Social Change. The video that captured the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer opened the eyes of many around the world to the blatant racism that has always been present for Black and Indigenous people. I marched alongside my family and hundreds of others demanding change. I returned home newly inspired. I realized how important my voice is as an Indigenous and Black artist. My stories matter, my creations are valid, and I need to keep going. I started to write once again. I found a new flow that worked for me. It was different than before but it was a flow that allowed me to keep working every day on what I truly love. I continued to write because artists are essential. When the world stood still, people turned to art that filled them with inspiring stories.

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Mita To'omalatai

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Trevor Solway The pandemic was a difficult time in all aspects of life. For me personally, it served as a hard reset. I’d been creating films at a rapid pace before COVID-19, whether it was my own personal projects, commercial projects for clients, or mentoring younger filmmakers through The Napi Collective. The pandemic forced me to halt all my productions. It was frustrating at first but it was a blessing in disguise. It allowed me the time to further develop my skills as a writer and preparation skills as a director. It taught me to value development time. I’ve realized that really good films, at their core, are really good stories, which come from scripts that are carefully critiqued, vetted, and rewritten. Also during this time, I lost my grandpa and a close cousin. Mourning and grieving these two close relations made me grow up and mature. It taught me that my most valuable resources aren't my car, my house, or the money I make. My most valuable resource is my time and how I spend it. In 2021, I made the decision to quit making commercial videos and strictly do creative films like documentaries and narratives. Since then, I’ve secured funding to make two feature length documentaries, one with the National Film Board (Siksikakowan) and one with the CBC (Kaatahkitopii); a horror-comedy web series, Tales From The Rez; and development funds to write my first feature. This past year was a rough storm but I’m glad to come out of it a stronger person and storyteller.

ECONOMIES Reflections

This mixed-media collage represents my experience in the screenwriting intensive. The background is a page from my screenwriting intensive feature screenplay, discarded Post-it notes from the storyboarding process make up the tree with magazine clippings. imagineNATIVE has given me new roots and a refuge from the changing outside world.

Reflections Connect

Taratoa Stappard In September 2019 I was directing a fundraising video in Gulu, North Uganda, when I received an email that would change my life: I had been selected to participate in the year-long 2020 imagineNATIVE Indigenous Screenwriting Intensive and with patient support, guidance, and encouragement from Eva Thomas, Adrianna Chartrand, and Jamie-Lee Reardon I was able to complete a good first draft of my screenplay, MĀRAMA, a Māori revenge horror, set in Victorian England. During the program, Eva very kindly introduced me to Sharlene George, a Māori producer based in Auckland. At the time, I didn’t think MĀRAMA was ready to share, so I sent her a shorter script of mine called TAUMANU. Sharlene liked the story and we agreed to apply for funding from TVNZ. After four months of development, TAUMANU was confirmed for production in Aotearoa as part of an anthology of six supernatural, Indigenous, half-hour stories. I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was when, in the midst this terrible pandemic, I was able to travel from locked down London all the way to Auckland where I spent the next 13 weeks immersed in prepping, shooting, and editing TAUMANU with an amazing, majority Māori cast and crew. TAUMANU is a Māori word with two distinct meanings—to colonize and to reclaim—and that’s effectively my pitch for the film. Sharlene and her company, Sweetshop & Green, have since optioned MĀRAMA and I can’t wait to work with them again. Thank you to imagineNATIVE for making this all possible. 139

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Making a film during the pandemic has led to some of the most challenging and greatest experiences of my career. When it was first announced that I had received the imagineNATIVE mentorship I was over the moon, until the announcement that the world was shutting down soon followed. We were in a whirlwind of “what ifs” and “is this even going to happen?”, and ultimately decided to push production to 2021. I began wondering if the universe was trying to tell me that I wasn’t meant to make this, but this thought was quickly followed by a “get over yourself, this is bigger than you” scolding in my mirror. After what seemed like an eternity, we slowly began to entertain the idea of pre-production again. With new COVID protocols being enforced on film sets, we made sure to prioritize and ensure every single cast and crew members' safety. This oddly led us to become closer as a team (nothing says team building like “show me your negative COVID test or else”). It also introduced us to the wonderful people of Saugeen First Nation, the traditional land of the People of the Three Fires. We came together to honour and celebrate their land, my mother, and storytelling — something that we as Indigenous people carry within our hearts. It was a magical weekend filled with happy tears, reconnection, and cultural teachings. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, and I am forever grateful for it. Wela'lin.

ECONOMIES Reflections

Tim Myles

Seeing the Forest and the Trees 2021 By Jesse Wente

As a city boy, forests were something to be visited, even if only by a short bike ride, rather than something to be lived in. There was mystery and wonder there. Trees, however, were to be climbed, their leaves to be raked up when they fell, to be hugged and embraced as part of play and the everyday. The fact that forests are just a collection of trees did little to make them seem less foreign or impenetrable. For much of cinema history, authentic representation of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit were trees in an industrial forest: individual breakthroughs that are inspiring, beautiful, and all too rare. However, trees were never the goal, but rather the growing of a forest. In 2021, there are signs we have reached the edge of the forest. That film has never been far apart from its industrial or commercial roots has always been at the nexus of both its glory and its limitations. While the commercial imperative has meant a rapidly evolving industry and vast investments in production and marketing, it has also meant an overreliance on those very things to overcome creative limitations: risk aversion and lack of inclusion. It should be apparent to all by now that, despite its significant economic success, the film and television industry’s historical exclusion of groups of people has meant that it is less popular and less successful than it would have been had groups been included from the outset. The forest we find ourselves in has never been allowed to grow equitably, and as a result, it is not nearly as robust or strong as it should be. The recent, abrupt shift in business models, brought on by the twin forces of a global pandemic and evolving consumer behaviour, presents its own challenges and benefits for the industry at large, but for those groups still seeking their own forest it represents enormous opportunity. While industrial disruption is a constant of western capitalism and has proven durable against movements towards more equitable access, the disruption itself nonetheless offers an opportunity for significant, if not radical, change. This moment comes just as long term efforts towards more thorough representation are beginning to yield fruit. In what is currently called Canada, the seeds planted long ago are now producing proposed legislative changes, increased funding support, and greater self-determination. These changes are the result of the work put in years ago and should serve as a reminder that the work we do know will only truly be realized in the future. Once Bill C-10, or a similar Bill, is passed, we will have new requirements for Indigenous created stories throughout the existing broadcast sector. This should come with more resources to support the development and production of these stories. The Indigenous Screen Office has received its first funding under its agreement with the Federal government and will be expanding both its program offerings and its operations in the coming months and years. These achievements seemed near impossible when the imagineNATIVE Festival was founded, but the work was being done to ensure they would be a reality today. These are things people dreamed and then worked into existence. Now is the time to dream of the forest we want to grow. What seeds do we want to plant in order to yield their fruits a generation later? Funders? Production companies? Studio spaces? International treaties? New distribution networks? All of these and more? Sign me up for that last one. As should be evident all around us, our stories are not only needed right now, they are necessary. For us yes, but for everyone else too.

Humans are the storytelling animal, and much like food, water, and air, we need stories to not just survive but thrive. With so much uncertainty, with so much upheaval, across systems and cultures, we need our stories to help guide us, inspire us, uplift us, and empower us. There is evidence that the commercial industry has begun to wake up to the power, reach, and potential of our stories. We are seeing more movies and shows made than at any time before, with larger budgets, controlled by Indigenous people. Training and mentorship are being embedded into best practices, and the work of gaining access is slowly evolving into the work of systemic change. There is so much to be proud of, to acknowledge, and to build upon. The only limitations should be our dreams. If there is one ask I would make of the Indigenous screen sector, it is to make sure you dream big. Now is the time for our stories to rise as we do, for our languages and our cultures to return, renewed and reinvigorated, for our nations to build mutual futures, and for our stories to guide as we do. The most powerful thing film does is allow us to imagine. Imagine worlds both new and old, destinies lived and those yet to be written, and our own futures with each other. We are the trees planted by our ancestors and nurtured by all our relations. In our dreams, let us imagine an even richer, fuller forest for our future kin, with our stories ensuring the roots are in solid ground. I was born a city boy, but I’ve witnessed a forest of storytellers, movie makers, and showrunners, artists and auteurs grow around me thanks to the seeds planted by those who came before. My dream is that we may plant so many seeds as to overwhelm this place with our stories and our love for our communities so that this place may be the forest of all of our dreams. Miigwetch, jw

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ECONOMIES Seeing the Forest and the Trees

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Trevor Mack, Portraits from a Fire, 2021

Kat Lintott

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angi Tuwh

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Tools for Survival

Tools for Production

2021

July 3, 2021

By Cheryl L’Hirondelle

By Suzanne Kite Scott Benesiinaabandan

This year, in addition to the ongoing pandemic regulations barring large gatherings and close proximity, wildfires are burning out of control in many of our northern homelands. Whole communities are being evacuated and smoke is causing health complications to all as it now blows south into cities and towns. We’ve lived through all of this before; you will learn this if you visit with our older relatives and listen to their stories. For instance, my mama used to tell of family bucket brigades, stretching from the shores of the nearby lake to the roofs of their modest cabins, to keep them saturated with water when fires loomed too close to her northern Alberta community. I also remember witnessing, as a small child, my aunts and uncles undertaking a controlled burn to clear growth for a large garden and to keep a fire-free barrier between the brush, trees, and adjacent houses. These actions are proof of effective, networked, Indigenous ingenuity.

Summary keywords: land, technology, art, intersection, relationship, agency, territory, geologic, gallery, timescale, space, Indigenous, data, colonial, Lakota, Anishinaabe The following is a conversation between Suzanne Kite (she/her), a Lakota currently living in Tulsa Oklahoma/Muscogee Creek reservation and Scott Benesiinaabandan (he/him), an Anishinaabe currently living in Treaty One, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Kayâs mâna kayâs (a long time ago) many medicine people in our communities prophesized the changes coming to our lands. They saw our new “relatives'' arriving in wooden boats from across great waters. They saw thunderbird fire connecting and illuminating our dwellings and long, black ribbons cutting across lands for new modes of travel. When television arrived in some northern communities, I’ve been told that the programming literally and figuratively paled in comparison to their medicine people’s ability to scry with a large pot of water and conjure—to the people assembled—their futures in a much more personalized, meaningful, and engaging manner than any sitcom could ever offer. This realization of our inherent understanding of the concept of screens and our own distinctive stories that needed to be invoked is what propelled innovations and contributions to Indigenize northern broadcasting.

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Online environments and new, immersive platforms offer connectivity and, in some cases, sensorially engaging workarounds, though it is essential that Indigenous alterations continue to be instated. Tewa scientist and artist Gregory Cajete asserts that “creativity and transformation are interrelated in every context or act of art creation.”1 This outcome is for both the artist and the audience. Networked individualism denotes a shift from physical, socially related communities with intrinsic, collective knowledge to online connected individuals with specific collected expertise. Similarly, technological individualism is a state where one’s frame of reference becomes dedicated to technological advancements in lieu of one’s cultural roots. Both of these states infer a loss of the exchange/interchange between artist/maker and audience/ user in a socially engaged and mutually sustaining worldview. Monetization and “likes” have seemingly altered this important connection in the current age of the knowledge economy we are in. As Indigenous beings to this land, we’re an intrinsic, forward-thinking part of the solutions to regain balance with the earth. Our knowledge systems and practice of survivance, our languages, and with them the encoded, profound, phenomenological implications to all that is life-affirming, are antidotes to the woes of the world. It is critical we protect and retain our data sovereignty and media ecosystems. And like our ancestors knew, let us continue to find ways to gather, to share, our visions and tools for survival with each other, utilizing our own imagineNATIVE talents to both transform and form strong linkages to keep each other’s lodges, livelihoods, and identities safe.

Cajete, G., & Bear, L. L. (2000). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence (Vol. 315). Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers.

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Peer to Peer Conversation

Image 1. Kite in collaboration with Devin Ronneberg, Le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Intersects Makȟá Oníya, installation, 2020. Installation, seven sculptures, carbon fibre, USGS data. Image Credit: Guy L'Heureux

Peer to Peer Conversation Tools for Production

SB - So, this is a chat about our relationships between technology and land and I think you have some really great pieces that directly engage these topics. Today, I wanted to ask you about the work you created for the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 2020. SK - Yeah, that piece is called Le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Intersects Makȟá Oníya. It is a collaboration between Devin Ronneberg and myself. So, I have an ongoing interest in the mapping of our lands – what that looks like and what that actually feels like. What's interesting about GPS data is it's easy to exaggerate the shapes, and this data is provided by the United States Geological Survey in order to possess and to extract the territory. Makȟá Oníya is the place in the Black Hills. It's the Cave that Breathes, the Breathing Cave, the Wind Cave. And it's always been interesting to me how the USGS data is already pre-sliced and pre-allocated into squares. It's meant to be possessed in this kind of right angle universe. So what I've done with the shapes is they intersect the gallery at the wrong angle, and in the installation I wanted them to look like they're two universes that were intersecting and colliding incorrectly, emerging from the corners, like an infection in the gallery.

SK - I think what I liked about working with this data is that I was manipulating colonial vision and intersecting colonial space. What’s interesting to me about carbon fiber is it comes in fabric, yards, so it's just fabric, and what you do is you lay it over these landforms and then you pour resin into it. So I always equate it to Jorge Luis Borges’ story about the Unconscionable Map from On Exactitude in Science (1946) where there's the real land underneath everything: all the data, all the perception, all the representation, all the legal ideas of colonial possession of land. These ideas and data form layers on top of the real land and so that's how I think about the fabric, where that's all the colonial stuff but, you know, the land is not there, the land is real. It's somewhere else. It's not in the gallery. So I like the materiality of carbon fibre. It appears fully representational while exposing how misrepresented the land really is. And it seems to me that it’s also what the institution wants: to possess the sculpture and contain the land; to contain our Indigenous knowledge of land within the colonial space so they can sell it for profit, and it brings me joy to give a false representation and not give the real thing. SB - Picking up on that virus metaphor, if you’ve ever seen the archive rooms for major collections where they have their climate controlled safety vaults, and they have all the organization, and they're even more right angled, like you said. The space, both literal and metaphorically, is even more right angled. All of these extraordinary devices and structural devices meant to protect the work and I like the idea of your piece stored away, out of sight and out of mind, and still kind of growing in its own psychic way — a Trojan horse of sorts.

Scott Benesiinaabandan, Blood Memories, digital print from video_1. 2013.

SK - On work in a similar vein, I wanted to ask you about the work Psychic Histories/Blood Memories and how that work uses technologies to explore ideas of space and listening. SB - So the piece was created early on in my first residency in Montréal with AbTeC and Obx Labs. I had just completed a three month residency in Parramatta, Australia, so I had all these ideas of, and was really questioning, what it means to be Indigenous in other spaces. Reexamining image making technologies by learning some basic coding actually let me break down the technology itself to be more responsive to the things that I want to talk about and explore in my art making. Psychic Histories/Blood Memories is one of the experimental pieces created by this process. It is a time split video that is controlled by the coding program allowing it to live in between a video and a single image. It compresses time and therefore sees the world in a very non-human way. Each one of those videos was considering how our subconscious awareness of territory intersects with a collective knowledge of land, a quality of its voice, a voice that we don't listen to or hear in our day to day lives. These qualia of the land don’t operate entirely within our ideas of Euclidean time/space and along our chronological timelines. It sort of stretches and folds and twists and touches at different places. I thought that with this technology and the way that it allows you to interact with time, you can begin seeing how the machine sees the world. That’s sort of what I was getting at in terms of Indigeneity and Indigenous time. The ideas of time sort of stretch and fold like that, not in a chronological and linear mapping.

Peer to Peer Conversation Tools for Production

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SB - It reminds me of that X-Files episode where there's the sort of emergent virus, I think called purity, invading and occupying the human body. In this case the body is the gallery space, while also serving as a metaphor for colonial space or Euclidean time. Then there's the Indigenous notions of land, timespace, and home which metaphorically works at disrupting the right angles of colonial space as perhaps adversarial or incompatible ontologies.

Peer to Peer Conversation Tools for Production

SK - Yeah, actually the other pieces that I've made. Similarly, with the same carbon fiber and laying it over models of the land. This is the first one I did that wasn't modelling over and over and over the same hill: the USGS data of the hill where my biological mother is buried and where I will probably be buried and my grandparents are buried. Between the geologic space and the human timescale, I will end up being inside this hill as well. My mind just goes to that hill over and over and over in an endless cycle, and I think about this Crazy Horse quote, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” I think that's pretty accurate. SK - What connects you back to your lands when you're far from them?

Scott Benesiinaabandan, Blood Memories, digital print from video_2. 2013.

Peer to Peer Conversation Tools for Production

SK - I feel like that kind of loops back into our discussions of technology being made of stones, mined materials, which are kind of separated from their geologic time scales. When things are mined, it disrupts the land and removes them; it tries to transform them into something that can continue to transform information and communication and data. So maybe there's something in this idea of technology being made of parts of the geologic world that conform and reform our perceptions of time by the material aspects. I was thinking about how consciousness and time are described and maybe there's something in the extreme, extreme lengths of geologic time that can open up definitions of consciousness. SB - For me, these ideas loop back to your ideas of the anomalous and the glitch. How can we let the technologies have a voice and how do we as humans learn to observe and listen to these computational outcomes? Are these outcomes, including the glitches, the voices of the machines and technologies? I like the idea that at its core the “machine” still remembers its life as rock and mineral; the image or the sound that it generates retains its original voice. SB - So I want to ask, because you travel a lot, what is the essential thing that keeps you connected to your Lakota territories? What is it that connects you to those Wind Cave stories?

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SB - The connection to land is an interesting question because I think it’s a relationship that keeps changing, a process of revisiting and learning. I have recently returned to Winnipeg, which is pretty close to where my territory is located, and my relationship and what is important shifts each time I leave and come back. I keep finding new things about it and this time I find that it's the light and the sky that I missed. These exterior elements translate to the quality of dreams and the dreaming process. And I think that's important, you know, that that's something that really is from territory and the space that you're in. So that territory and land relationship is something I'm continuously learning about.

+ + y t i y t c i o c r o p r i p c i e c R Re e d e u d t i u t t i a t r a G Gr

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, Mary Two-Axe Ea

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Sustaining and Gifting the Harvest Aniin Boozhoo, Gifting the harvest is the idea and practice of sharing the fruits of our collective efforts and responsibilities at imagineNATIVE. Honouring, centering, and celebrating the community and the artists who journey to imagineNATIVE with stories and brilliance from their Nations remains our priority. After months of tending and planting seeds of new relationships and ideas and growing and nurturing long-standing partnerships, we are excited to gift this harvest to our artists, audiences, collaborators, and Elders. This act of gifting acknowledges and uplifts the many incredible artisans, makers, grassroots organizations, and Indigenous-owned companies that partner with us to offer a Give-Away. After another year of learning and overcoming challenges brought by the global pandemic, we’re still going strong with the collective support from our artists, audiences, partners, and staff. We are excited to welcome you to imagineNATIVE and hope you enjoy gifting the harvest. Miigwetch/Mahsi cho,

Claudia Skunk + David Morrison Corporate Partnerships Manager + Fundraising + Partnerships Coordinator

Give-Away Partner Acknowledgment

2020

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Items and goods will be gifted through physical and digital Give-Aways throughout the Festival, highlighting Indigenous artists and companies. Grounded in expressions of generosity, the Give-Aways will acknowledge the continued support and work from our communities. This year imagineNATIVE will continue to mobilize and connect in new, creative, and exciting ways!

By Nikita Larter

imagineNATIVE would like to acknowledge the following companies, artisans, makers, grassroots organizations, and Indigenous-owned businesses that are sharing their wealth, creativity, and knowledge with our audiences:

Good Minds Books Iron Dogs Books Kokum Scrunchies Nativelovenotes Nikita Larter North West Company Quw’utsun’ Made Shades of Grey Pet Treats Skwalwen Botanicals Sobeys Uasau Soap Yukon Soaps This year’s Give-Away totals over $23,000 worth of prizes!

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We are excited to have Nikita Larter’s illustration Berry featured on imagineNATIVE’s 2021 Festival tote bag. Nikita drew this illustration as part of the online challenge #NDNtober. #NDNtober is an Indigenous spin on the popular Inktober challenge and was created by @melancholynow and @gray_jay_art on Instagram. NDNtober 2020 was Nikita’s first time participating in the drawing challenge and sharing her artwork publicly. It was such a positive experience, that she revitalized the hobby and began to practice drawing more consistently. She particularly enjoyed being able to apply her cultural lens to the challenge and this continues to be reflected in her work. Capturing cultural experiences not only allows her to create much needed Inuit representation but also expresses Nikita’s pride in her Inuvialuit identity. Berry picking is an annual tradition that contributes to food sovereignty of Inuit across the Arctic. Nikita has fond memories of picking kimmingnat (cranberries) as a child, which inspired this illustration.

RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Gifting the Harvest

Berry

2021 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Awards The imagineNATIVE Awards Presentation showcases the 2021 selection of works with awards contributing to a total of $56,000. We are excited to celebrate Indigenous achievement in film and media arts with the generous support from our Partners and individual donors.

Experimental Audio Award with support from imagineNATIVE

The Audience Choice Feature Film Award with support from MBSE Canada

Narrative Audio Award with support from imagineNATIVE

New Voice in Storytelling Award in honour of Jane Glassco and Ellen Monague with support from CJ Foundation and Indigenous Education & Engagement at Humber College

Emerging Digital + Interactive Award with support from imagineNATIVE Mid-Career Digital + Interactive Award with support from imagineNATIVE Innovation in Storytelling Award in recognition of Kent Monkman with support from Kent Monkman and Sobeys Documentary Short Award with support from TVO Documentary Feature Award in recognition of the legacy of Alanis Obomsawin with support from CBC Live Action Short Award in recognition of founders Cynthia LickersSage and Vtape, with support from Jason Ryle and VTape Dramatic Feature Award with support from imagineNATIVE The Audience Choice Short Film Award with support from BMO

The August Schellenberg Award of Excellence with support from Joan Karasevich Schellenberg and ACTRA National The Sun Jury Award with support from the Directors Guild of Canada

Recognizing and celebrating Indigenous works shows the world the talent our community has. It’s paramount we celebrate stories that are told from the First Peoples point of view, not just stories from an outsider’s “First Person” point of view.

The Moon Jury Award with support from the Directors Guild of Canada

Cynthia Lickers-Sage, imagineNATIVE Co-Founder

APTN/imagineNATIVE Web Series Pitch Prize with support from APTN and Bell Fund

I will never forget the first time I saw Qaggiq by Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, and Isuma in 1989. I had never seen anything like it before, never seen with such clarity what it is like to live in the North, never experienced a work that was made with a whole community’s involvement. These were unique voices and as I came to know more Indigenous works and more voices, it was clear that these had to be brought into the spotlight. That is what awards do: shine a light on artists we did not know before. Afterwards, we seek out their next work and tell others. Awards count.

Lisa Steele Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Vtape

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RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Awards

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Indigenous Language Production Award with support from Indigenous Media Initiatives

2021 Juries Moon Jury

Sun Jury

The Moon Jury is responsible for adjudicating the following awards: Dramatic Feature, Live Action Short, Innovation in Storytelling, Indigenous Language Production, and the Moon Jury Prize.

The Sun Jury is responsible for adjudicating the following awards: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, New Voice in Storytelling, and the Sun Jury Prize.

Jessie Anthony (Haudenosaunee) Jessie Anthony is an award-winning director/writer/producer based in Vancouver. She is a proud Haudenosaunee woman from the Onondaga Nation, Beaver Clan, born and raised on the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.

Adeline Bird (Afro-Anishinaabe) Adeline Bird is an author, filmmaker, and producer. She grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is a proud member of Rolling River First Nations. Adeline is a graduate of the National Screen Institute's CBC New Indigenous Voices program, where she made her first short film, Nappy Hair and Eagle Feather, now featured on CBC Gem. Adeline was one of the 2018 imagiNATIVE/APTN Pitch winners, with her web series iNdigiThreads, and was part of 2019 cohort of Telefilm Canada’s Talent To Watch. Adeline sits on the Visioning Committee of BIPOC TV & Film, and is an advocate and thought leader in the ongoing discussions on equity & inclusion in the Canadian media industry.

Kiel McNaughton (Māori) Manurewa-bred Kiel McNaughton's extensive work ranges from acting, writing, producing, and directing. McNaughton and wife Warkia produced the anthology movies Waru and Vai, which were shot across the Pacific. In 2020, McNaughton debuted his feature film as director, The Legend of Baron To’a', which won imagineNATIVE's Dramatic Feature Award. Kiel is currently in post production on his second feature film with a third being packaged for finance.

Sara Margrethe Oskal (Sámi) Sara Margrethe Oskal is a director, scriptwriter, and actor. She holds a PhD in Performing Arts researching humour, yoik, storytelling, and contemporary stage expressions. She has made three short films and is currently working on her feature film script and a TV series. She also works with dubbing animations into her mother tongue and she was the Sámi voice director of Frozen II.

Kerry Warkia (Māori) Kerry Warkia is a producer who has been at the forefront of some of New Zealand’s most innovative content for film, television, and the web. Warkia and partner Kiel McNaughton produced the anthology movies Waru and Vai, which were shot across the Pacific. Kerry is currently working on a slate of feature films and TV series with a range of underrepresented writers and directors. 156

The Land Jury is responsible for adjudicating the following awards: Experimental Audio and Narrative Audio.

Water Jury The Water Jury is responsible for adjudicating the following awards: Emerging Digital + Interactive and Mid-Career Digital + Interactive.

Ginger Dunnill (Hana/Maui/Hawai‘i) Ginger Dunnill is an artist, activist, DJ, and mother who centres collaboration to create a living archive in support of intersectionality. She has organized exhibitions and social engagement projects globally, activating restorative justice practices. She is the Communications Director at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts and is the creator and voice of Broken Boxes Podcast.

Cecilia Araneda (Chilean) Chilean-born filmmaker and curator Cecilia Araneda came to Canada as a refugee as a child. Now based in Winnipeg, Cecilia is an independent filmmaker and founder of the Winnipeg-based WNDX Festival of Moving Image. In 2019, she became the first ever prairie recipient of the Canada Council’s Joan Lowndes Prize for excellence in visual and media art curation.

Maize Longboat (Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk)) Maize Longboat is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) with family at Six Nations of the Grand River and was raised on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation near Vancouver, British Columbia. He has an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Maize is a Dev Relations Manager with Unity and has worked with Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF).

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Kim Wheeler (Anishinaabe/Mohawk) Kim Wheeler has brought positive Indigenous stories to mainstream and Indigenous media since 1993. She has carved out a career as a writer, publicist, and producer across a variety of disciplines. Her audio work has been recognized by the New York Festivals, imagineNATIVE, Indigenous Music Awards, and Prix Italia. Kim works from her treehouse media office with multiple clients in publicity, magazines, film, and podcasts. She also hosts The Kim Wheeler Show on SiriusXM’s The Indigiverse, channel 165.

RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Awards

Land Jury

A Conversation With Dr. Shirley Cheechoo... My name is Shirley Cheechoo. I am Cree from James Bay, Eastmain Cree Nation, but I currently live in the Manitoulin Islands. And I’m the Artistic Director and Founder of the Weengushk Film Institute. I didn’t choose a career in film, it kind of just fell in my lap. I had chosen to be a phys ed teacher, but I got very ill and was asked to leave University. I never returned. When I didn’t return, the arts were a way of finding another direction that I wanted to go that I really liked: performing. So, I thought I would try the arts, and while I was doing that, I did an anthology series for CBC. They asked me to write a film, which I did, but in the end, I decided to take it away from the CBC and make the film myself because it was a true story about my family. That is how film became part of my career.

August Schellenberg Award 158

This award is supported by ACTRA National and individual donations. imagineNATIVE is honoured to present the 2021 August Schellenberg Award to Dr. Shirley Cheechoo. Shirley Cheechoo (Cree) was born in Eastmain, Quebec, on the eastern shore of James Bay. Shirley is an accomplished and award-winning artist, actor, and filmmaker who has been working in the Indigenous community for over 30 years. She is the proud recipient of numerous awards both for her own work and in recognition of her profound contributions to arts practice throughout Ontario. This multi-awardwinning filmmaker was the first person from a First Nation in Canada to write, produce, direct, and act in a feature-length, dramatic film, entitled Bearwalker, which had a market screening at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Shirley is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Weengushk Film Institute.

I am inspired by youth. They bring a lot to me; when they walk in through this door at Weengushk I get inspired by them, and reading their stories inspires me. I get inspired by Elders and their storytelling. I get inspired by my family. I get inspired by my son, he inspires me because I see him and how hard he works. He works the same way that my brother Ben used to work. He has worked really hard to get to where he is. My dream for the future is to build a new school. It is the Turtle Island project, a school where everybody will be welcomed to come in — a safe place. The school will be open to people that don’t necessarily have the chance to go to post-secondary, or even to finish high school. It is a school where you can build your own career; where you’re given a second chance to be able to find a future and sustainability in your life. My grandfather used to say to me, “Forget it, but never forget about it”. I was a residential school student, and I was very self-destructive. I used to feel sorry for myself. And when I decided that this wasn’t going to work for my family — because I have always wanted a big family — I had to find a way to put my pain in a more constructive way. And I guess that’s what keeps me going every day The best advice that was given to me would be to love myself and to try to put what I’ve gone through into storytelling so that others could heal from it. The most exciting thing in my world right now is that people are starting to recognize that our people are important. Youth matter. They are starting to hear our voices. And the exciting part of that is some of us have survived the residential schools. We can actually give those children that have been found voices so that other people can hear them.

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RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE August Schellenberg Award Interview

The August Schellenberg Award of Excellence was launched in partnership with Joan Karasevich Schellenberg to honour her late husband, the legendary actor August (Augie) Schellenberg, and the spirit of his work. This award is presented to gifted Indigenous actors from across Turtle Island based on the longevity and impact of their careers, as well as their professionalism and involvement in mentorship and community work.

When I first started it was very difficult. People didn’t understand my stories. I always found myself explaining Indigenous storytelling to people; at the time they didn’t understand it. They wanted to see more of the romantic Indian — the powwows, the dream catchers, — and my stories were different than that. So, I pulled away from filmmaking because it wasn’t time for my stories. I decided to leave until there was a time that my stories would be accepted in the mainstream. And I find that now, the stories are evolving and they’re giving us more creative control on our storytelling.

Nia:wen/ Miigwetch/ Marsii Thank you

2021 Festival Partners

To all of our Festival Partners + Supporters

Banff World Media Festival

ACTRA National A Space Gallery Bizable Media CIBC

Presenting Partner

Individual Donors

Charles Street Video

Individual Donors Gifting $5,000+ Jason Ryle Kent Monkman

Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre

Individual Donors Gifting $1,000+

DOC Institute

Alanna Matsyek

Encore+

Gail Vanstone

EQ Bank

Shelagh Rogers

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography Indspire Indigenous Media Initiatives Lead Institute Partner

Institute Partner

Kodak The National Screen Institute (NSI) Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) Miziwe Biik NABET 700-M Unifor National Screen Institute (NSI) NBC Universal

Major Partners

Niagara Custom Lab Pinewood Studios Rezolution Pictures Streamland Media Telus Storyhive TIFF Trinity Square Video

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TVO University of Toronto Centre For Indigenous Studies Vtape

Individual Donors Gifting $100+ Alanna Matler Alex Williams Andrew Johnson Carolyn Bennett Christa Dickenson Claire Allore Elizabeth Czach Henriette Katz Madeline Teresa Merrick Michael Paul Michele Maheux Nicole Mendes Peter Hill Reena Schellenberg Terry Lau Vanessa Loewen

161

Wendy Pearson

William F. White International Inc.

Individual Donors Gifting Monthly

York University

Aimee Mitchell

Youth Media Alliance Médias Jeunesse

Anne Pick

YYZ Artists’ Outlet

Barbara Fingerote Beth Duffus

Lead Foundations

Cameron Bailey Damien Nelson

Funders

Foundations

Helen Paul

CJ Foundation

Jayne Schneider

MakeWay

Lori Willcox

RBC Foundation

Niki Little

The Chawkers Foundation The Harbinger Foundation The K. M. Hunter Foundation Toronto Foundation

RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Acknowledgments

Women in Film & Television - WIFT Toronto

Mahsi Cho/Thank you to our Individual Donors

Anne Barber

Candace Scott-Moore

Dale Turner

Ellany Kayce

Hoda Ali

Jo-Anne Mansell

Kari Cwynar

Adam Hurtig

Anne Dagenais Guertin

Candice Dixon

Damienne Pradier

Emi Hosotsuji

Huw Eirug

Joanne Schwartz

Karla Lara

Howard Adler

Anne Lajla Utsi

Cappucine Ferguson

Dana Klyszejko

Emilee Magee

Irene Walsh

Jocelyn Formsma

Kate Clutterbuck

Adam Kovac

Anne-Cécile Grunenwald

Cara Quinto

Danbi Cho

Emily Fitzpatrick

J. Hank White

Jocelyn Whalen

Kate Fenton

Adina Muskat

Anne-Frédérik Richard

Cara Tercsak

Dani Coghlan

Emily Teoh

Jack Pearpoint

Joelle Navarro

Kate Forget

Adrienne Ryder

Anne-Marie Smith

Carol Rowntree

Daniel Oxenhandler

Emma Whitmell

Jacqueline Pascucci

Joey Clift

Kate Taeuschel

Aidan O'Flannagain

Annie Lujan

Caroline VanEvery-Albert

Daniel Tyree

Eric Tschaeppeler

Jade Diaz

Johanna McBurnie

Kate Werneburg

Aisha Faruqui

Annike Andre-Barrett

Carolyn Knight

Danielle Bitz

Erica Jamieson

Jamaias DaCosta

John G Hampton

Katherine Digby

Aislinn Macculloch

Roger Boyer

Carrie Payiw

Darla Isaacs

Erica Sum

James Cahill

John Lawford

Katherine Meloche

Aiyana McIntosh

Anon Anon

Cassandra Nanticoke

Darlene Angeconeb

Erika L Garcia

James Clark

John Paillé

Katherine Polidakis

Alan Teder

Arlene Watts

Catherine Gregorio

Darren Lone Fight

Eryne Croquet

James Woods

Joline Mearon-Bull

Katherine Seibert

Aldrin Eaker

Asinnajaq Weetaluktuk

Cathie Waldie

David Burman

Esther Vise

Jamie Henwood

Jona Barabas

Kathie Little

Alex Jacobs-Blum

Barbara Evans

Cathy Allison

David Fredrick

Eunsol Ahn

Jamie-Lee Reardon

Jonathan Levstein

Kathleen Dearhouse

Alex Thomson

Barbara Miller

Cathy Mattes

David Geary

Evadne Kelly

Jane Brindley

Jordan Bennett

Kathleen Meek

Alex Williams

Barry Levinthal

Cayley James

David Luecke

Evan Pizzolato

Jane Sorel

Jordan Drage

Kathryn Morrison

Alex Winterburn

Becka Barker

Celia Harte

Dawn Borchardt

Evelyn Pakinewatik

Janelle Leclair

Jordon Myers

Katie Findlay

Alexandrea Philip

Berle Anthony

Chantel MacMillan

Dean Smith

F. Effie Kolbeins

Janet Lin

Jorma Lehtola

Katie Raso

Alexandria Taylor

Beth Clause-Doxtater

Chantelle Forest

Deanna Galati

Fay Faraday

Jason Anderson

Josephine Tcheng

Katie Smith

Alexia Jacquot

Beth Follett

Charla Ramsey

Deborah Barndt

Faye Ginsburg

Jayme Last

Jrene Rahm

Kay Ma

Alida Stevenson

Bethany Fisher

Charlotte Enb

Deborah Huntley

Field Liberty

Je Thor

Jse Che Lam

Kayla Wemp

Alison Henry

Billi-Jo Poirier

Chelsea Barnett

Deborah Schneidet

Franklynn Bartol

Jean McNeil

Judy Anderson

Kelly Hackman

Alize Zorlutuna

Blythe Haynes

Cheryl Donison

Deianna Syriani

Fraser MacPherson

Jean-Guy Niquet

Julia Girmenia

Kelly Malcolmson

Alysha Passalacqua

Bojana Sandic

Cheryl Porter

Denis McCready

Fred Fuchs

Jen Reimer

Julianna Yates

Kelly Steele

Amanda Madden

Bonita Lawrence

Cheryl Sutherland

Derek Ford

Gabriella Penev

Jenn Cole

Julie Comber

Ken Derry

Amanda Martin

Bonnie Johnson

Cheryl Zinyk

Desirée de Jesus

Gail Driedger

Jenn Miller

Julie Cusmariu

Ken Tsui

Amber Fundytus

Bonnie Thornbury

Cheyenne Kaiser

Diana Komejan

Genevieve Pelletier

Jennie Goldstein

Julie Grenier

Kerry Potts

Amy Alyea

Boston Hall

Chloe Morrow

Diane Thompson-Bishop

Gerard Peltier

Jennifer Bieber

Julie Nagam

Kester Dyer

Amy Collier

Brandie Janes

Chris Vajcner

Diyet Van Lieshout

Gerry Hallworth

Jennifer Detweiler

Julie Puckrin

Kimberley Miller

Amye Werner

Brenda Darling & Ian

Christina Cicko

Donna Lycett

Gia Wen

Jennifer Guzman

June Scudeler

Kimwun Perehinec

Anabelle Budd

Gilmour

Christina Kim

Donna Noonan

Gillian Hanson

Jennifer Komorowski

Justin de Luna

Kiona Ligtvoet

Andrea Fox

Brenda MacIntyre

Christine Brown

Donna Spencer

Gina Shapiro

Jennifer Shuter

Justin Paulson

Kirsten Bligh

Andrew August

Brenda Vallette

Christine General

Doug Cleverley

Gini Dickie

Jennifer Smith

Justine Etzkorn

Kirsten Carthew

Andrew Avgerinos

Brett Hendrie

Christoph Straub

Douglas Urrutia

Grace Watts

Jenny Lin

Kaitlin Blanchard

Kirsten Johnson

Andrew Hall

Brett Schmall

Christy Guthrie

E. Jane

Guita A Lamsechi

Jessica Barry

Kaitlin Ritchie

Knud Petersen

Andrew McConnell

Brittany Hill

Ciele Beau

Elaine Brindley

Haoming Xia

Jessica Lea Fleming

Kaitlin Tremblay

Krista Ellis

Andrew Prahlow

Brittney Appleby

Claire Hopkinson

Elaine Stewart

Håvard Bustnes

Kathleen Hyland

Kaitlynn Tomaselli

Krista Patriquin

Ang Crandall

Bruno Canadien

Claire Saintesprit

Eleanor Andrews

Hayley Lessard

Jessica Tsang

Kanerahtakwas Deom

Kristen Yee

Ange Loft

Bryce Jones

Claire Whitehead

Elena Thompson

HaYung Kim

Jessica Upton

Karen Bracken

Kristi Shawana

Angelica Trimble-Yanu

Buffie Irvine

Coco Nielsen

Elise Couture Grondin

Heather Howard

Jo MacDonald

Karen Campos

Kristin Catherwood

Anika Guthrie

Caitlin English

Colinda Clyne

Elise Martinoski

Heather Igloliorte

Joann Pham

Karen Jorgensen

Kristin Dowell

Anika K

Caleb Dusdal

Corrie Coe

Elissa Matthews

Heidi Tiedemann Darroch

Joanna Hindle

Karen Porter

Kyla Judge

Ann Bates

Callista Moya

Cory Hill

Elizabeth Cherniak

Helen Haig-Brown

JoAnne Fishburn

Karen Sandy

Kyle Napier

Ann Weston

Candace Galloway

Cory Hunlin

Elizabeth Mangat

Hillel Heinstein

Joanne Ladouceur

Karen Tsang

Kyle St-Amour-Brennan

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RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Acknowledgments

162

Adam Becenti

Lynette Hodder

Meghan Shannon

Nicole Neidhardt

Robin Parker

Sijia Li

Ululinannguaq Olsen

Larissa Christoforo

Lynne Van Beek

Melanie Braith

Nicole Nuk

Ruairi Flynn

Siobhan Kennedy-Cameron

Unna Regino

Laura Church

Mackenzie Gee

Melanie Laking

Nika Khanjani

Russell Gendron

Siobhan O'Dell

Valeria Alcon

Laura Dickens

Mackenzie Muldoon

Melissa Bisagni

Nikola Odic

Ruth Buchanan

Skye Matheson

Valerie Bain

Laura Montgomery

Madeleine Cole

Melissa Caro

Ninaatig Staats Pangowish

Ruth Cuthand

Sourodipto Roy

Vanessa Pinto

Laurel Forshaw

Madeleine de Young

Melissa General

Noelle Fraser

Sabrina Budiman

Springwater Meawassige

Vanessa Sperduti

Lauren Cornell

Maeva Ceau

Melissa Pang

Noelle Hanuse

Sahar Khadjenoury

Stephanie Aubertin

Vera Santillana

Lauren Hill

Maggie Rowland

Mercediese Dawson

Omer Boulet

Sally Wolchyn-Raab

Stephanie Collins

Vernon Hagen

Laurie Paille

Maia Foster-Sanchez

Mia Henderson

Omnia Saed

Salman Kureishy

Stephanie Courtney

Veronica Skye

Layli Long Soldier

Maïna Béland-Rahm

Michael Jacoby

Patrice Niro

Sandra Laughren

Stephanie Jette

Veronique West

Leah Cooper

Makasha Kay

Michael Marlatt

Patricia Jarosz

Saphra Jones

Stephanie Pflugfelder

Vicky Boldo

Leah Mullen

Malini Guha

Michael Zryd

Patricia Longo

Sara Diamond

Steven Di Marco

Victoria Alcoset

Leasa Peters

Manar Hossain

Michaella Shannon

Paula Hill

Sarah Bird

Summer Sands-Macbeth

Victoria McNaughton

LeeAnn Miller

Mandy Harris

Michelle Derosier

Peeranut Visetsuth

Sarah Chu

Sunrise Tippeconnie

Vinnie Krieger

Leigh Nunan

Manon Gentes

Michelle Martin

Penny Marshall

Sarah Jacob

Susan Currie

Wanda Smith

Lesley Marshall

Marcus Tuttle

Michelle Ouellet

Phyllis Grant

Sarah Lasch

Susan Moellers

Wayne Shipley

Lesley Thurston-Brown

Margery Thomas

Michelle Smith

Pippin Barr

Sarah Megan

Suzanne Zietsma

Wendell Collier

Leslie Adams

Margo Harvie

Michelle Thrush

Pornthong Kraikul

Sarah Van Peteghen

Tabetha Rose

Wes King

Levi Cristobal

Margot Francis

Mike Frank

Prabhat Jain

Sarah Von Gertzen

Talena Atfield

Willi Lempert

Liane Cunje

Maria Hill

Mike MB

Rachael Maza

Sari Park

Tamara Cascagnette

William Riley

Lila Asher

Maria Meindl

Miranda Jones

Rachel Pennington

Savanna White

Tania Alekson

Wina Sioui

Lilyan Cilia

Maria Minutillo

Miriam Blair

Rachel Spence

Scott MacKenzie

Tanya Loftus

Wren Bond

Lina Reardon

Marianna Tzabiras

Moe Laverty

Rae Mcb

Scott Miller Berry

Tanya Van Valkenburg

Xavier Snelgrove

Linda Grussani

Marie Moliner

Monica Martens

Ramses Madina

Sebastian Wurzrainer

Tara Aquino

Yasmine Ekoka

Linda Herd

Marie Teodorescu

Moniquea Marion

Rasheed Sulaman

Shaina Humble

Tara Joly

Yvette Jancso

Linda Lowry

Marie-Eve Dufour

Myokyo Judith McLean

Rea Nolan

Shane Corkery

Tara Williamson

Yvonne Boyer

Lindsay Hope-Ross

Marijke Friesen

Nadia Brophy

Rebeca Ortiz

Shanelle Hill

Tasneem Nanji

Zack Lamarche

Linsey Hill

Marissa Campbell

Nafisa Murji

Rebecca Gibson

Shankhalika Srikanth

Taylor Cuddihy

Zina Mustafa

Lisa Blais

Marry Mao

Nakasuk Alariaq

Rebecca Hallquist

Shannon Elliott

Taylor Rubert

Ziysah von Bieberstein

Lisa Keeley

Martha Burns

Nala Haileselassie

Rebecca LaRiviere

Shari Laliberte

Terra MacPhail

Lisa Merchant

Martin Prentice

Nancy Campbell

Rebecca Taylor

Sharon Hayashi

Terri Rodak

Lisa Owl

Mary Anne Fullerton

Nancy Stevens

Remy Huberdeau

Sharon Hobenshield

Tianna Fischer

Lisa Paller

Mary Clare Greenshields

Naomi Johnson

Renata Burchfield

Shaun Kessler

Tiffany Howes

Lisa Taylor

Mary Rumley

Natalia Escobar

Renee Laprise

Shayne Hontiveros

Tracey Friesen

Liz Czach

Mary Sullivan

Natasha Silva

Revi Ganel

Shea Lowery

Tracie Louttit

Loretta Todd

Mary-Kate Edwards

Nathalie Carrier

Reza Hosseiny

Sheena Li

Travis Simms

Lori Beavis

Mateo Hinojosa

Nathalie Cleroux

Richard Fung

Sheila Perkin

Treena Orchard

Lorna Williams

Matthew Cheng

Nicholas Carella

Richard Mandelzys

Sheila Soares

Tresa Smith

Lorrilee McGregor

Matthew Duce

Nicola Campbell

Richie Allen

Shelby Lisk

Trevor Scott

Louis-Nicolas Dolbec

Maureen Grant

Nicole Anderson

Rita Gallippi

Shelby Potter

Trish Church

Louise Gastonguay

Meagan Musseau

Nicole Blundell

Rob Schulz

Sherry Heschuk

Trisha Dayal

Lucy Galloway

Meg Peters

Nicole Gingras

Robert Howell

Sherry Zhang Sun

Tyler White

Lyn Daniels

Megan LeBlanc

Nicole Jahraus

Robin Gray

Shirley Ceravolo

Tyson Purdy-Smith

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RECIPROCITY + GRATITUDE Acknowledgments

164

Lacey Curley

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167

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s Vilca

, Mam

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(Mothe

r Rain),

2019

s s s s e e n t n i t i W W

imagineNATIVE 2021

WITNESS Creative Reflection Poem

Albert

When I drop tobacco I connect to those roots Left by my grandmothers. ery fall They witness my oﬀerings ev When I return home To trade tobacco for Their dreams and sacriﬁces. When the leaves turn yellow . We take only what is needed Their knowledge remains Sustainable in our veins. 169

168

WITNESS Creative Reflection Poem

-Thunkán čík’ala Prestin Mercredi- Fleming

Marc Fuss

ing Rosba

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– The mask

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2021

imagineNATIVE Community Contributor Biographies

As most of our programming is online this year, we produced a creative publication grounded in the overarching Festival thematic, Fall Camp. We invited artists, elders, activists, youth, and community members to contribute to the book through poetry, creative reflections, essays, and peer-to-peer interviews. Collaborating in a more collective way has enhanced this year’s Festival in wonderful and unforeseen ways. We value the many lenses and stories that shape the work we put forward as Indigenous peoples.

Evelyn Pakinewatik (Anishinaabe) Evelyn Pakinewatik is an artist, storyteller, and award-winning filmmaker from Nipissing First Nation.

Francisco Javier Tarque Cañipa (Aymara) Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota) Through monumental installations and social collaboration, Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan/ Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota) interweaves performance and political action to communicate stories about twenty-first century Indigeneity. He produces large-scale projects globally.

Ginger Dunnill (Hana/Maui/Hawai’i) Cheryl L’Hirondelle (nêhiyaw/half-breed) Cheryl L’Hirondelle is an interdisciplinary, community-engaged artist, a singer/songwriter, and a critical thinker whose family roots are from Papaschase First Nation, amiskwaciy wâskahikan (Alberta), and Kikino Metis Settlement, Alberta. Her work critically investigates and articulates a dynamism of nêhiyawin (Cree worldview) in contemporary time-place with a practice that incorporates Indigenous language(s), audio, video, virtual reality, the olfactory, music, and audience/user participation to create immersive environments towards “radical inclusion.”

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Christopher Grant (Pabineau)

Dana Solomon (Anishinaabe – Sagkeeng First Nation) Dana Solomon is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), member of Sagkeeng First Nation, and Afro-Guyanese performing artist, choreographer, filmmaker and youth facilitator from Selkirk Manitoba, now living in Mississauga.

Elder Duke Redbird (Saugeen) Elder Duke Redbird is a poet, artist, filmmaker, educator, and activist. He is a proud member of The Saugeen First Nation. His music video The Power of the Land with Sultans of String is available on YouTube.

Jason Baerg (Cree-Métis/Settler) Jason Baerg is an Indigenous advocate, educator, and international, interdisciplinary art practitioner. Recent curatorial projects include exhibitions with Toronto’s Nuit Blanche and the University of Toronto. Baerg completed a Master of Fine Arts at Rutgers University. He is currently a tenure track professor at OCAD University.

Jamie-Lee Lina Reardon (Ojibwe – Flying Post First Nations) Jamie-Lee (Ojibwe/Irish) is a member of Flying Post First Nations and the Institute Coordinator at imagineNATIVE. She is committed to supporting the professional development of Indigenous Creatives.

Jessica Lea Fleming (Wiisaakodewinikwe (Métis)/Scottish) Jessica is an award-winning artist originally from Penetanguishene, Ontario. She creates in multidisciplinary mediums as a means of exploring connection, identity, and land-based knowledge. She is especially drawn to examining the duality and nuance of her mixed blood as an opportunity to engage in emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual innovation.

Jessica Jamieson (Kanien'kehá:ka) Jessica Jamieson (Kanyen'kehá:ka) is a member of the Mohawk Nation, bear clan. Shénnen Kénhak.

Emily Laurent Henderson (Inuk) Emily Laurent Henderson is a Kalaaleq (Greenland Inuk) writer and arts administrator based in Toronto, Ontario. She currently works with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective.

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WITNESS Community + Contributors

Christopher Grant is a Mi’gmaq filmmaker from Pabineau First Nation, New Brunswick. Inspired by life and death, Chris loves to express the humour and terror of existence. His work is part of the NFB’s Hothouse project and has been exhibited at Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Gynocratic Art Gallery, and Bathurst Heritage Museum, and has screened at Maoriland and imagineNATIVE.

Ginger Dunnill is an accomplice who centres collaboration to create a living archive in support of intersectionality. She has organized exhibitions and social engagement projects globally, activating restorative justice practices.

iN Community + Contributors

Léuli Eshrãghi (Sāmoa) Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi is a Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, and researcher working between Australia and Canada whose practice spans performance, moving image, writing, and installation.

Ma- Nee Chacaby (Ojibwe-Cree) Jesse Wente (Anishinaabe) Jesse Wente is an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster, speaker, and arts leader. Born and raised in Toronto, he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation. Jesse is an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights and First Nations, Metis, and Inuit art. He was recently appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, the only First Nations person to ever hold the position.

Ma-Nee Chacaby is an Ojibwe-Cree writer, artist and activist. They are well known for their memoir A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder. Ma-Nee lives in Thunder Bay where they mentor young people, sharing Anishinaabe teachings and supporting access to ceremony for 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous peoples.

Melissa Johns (Kanien'kéha/French Canadian) Joseph A. Naytowhow (Nêhiyaw/Cree) An award-winning nêhiyaw/Cree interdisciplinary artist, Knowledge Keeper, and Cultural Advisor from Treaty Six territory, Joseph Naytowhow is published in kanikamot askiy and has co-authored several university research articles as well as work for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for their Truth and Reconciliation compendium.

Melissa Johns is the Digital + Interactive Coordinator at imagineNATIVE. She is a multimedia visual artist and educator from a mixed Mohawk (Turtle Clan) and French Canadian background. Melissa uses interdisciplinary methods to collect, preserve, and transform fragments of the stories around her.

Mita To’omaltai (Sāmoan) Jules A Koostachin (Cree – Attawapiskat First Nation) Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin was raised by her Cree speaking grandparents in Moosonee, and also by her mother in Ottawa, a warrior of the Canadian Residential school system. She’s a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, and now resides in Vancouver. Jules is in post-production with her narrative short MisTik and in pre-production with her feature drama Broken Angel. She is also in development with the NFB for a feature documentary.

Kairyn Potts (Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation) 172

Mita To’omaltai is a Sāmoan screenwriter, visual artist, community organizer, and Director/ Programmer of the Utah Pacific Island Film Series based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Niki Little (Anishininew/British) Niki Little is a mother, artist/observer, and founding member of The Ephemerals with Jaimie Isaac and Jenny Western. Her interests investigate Indigenous womxn, kinship, and community-based initiatives and economies. Niki has been the Artistic Director at imagineNATIVE since 2019.

Kairyn Potts (Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation) is a passionate youth advocate and resource developer for the Two-Spirit community. He is also a content creator, model, comedian, and live streamer.

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Phyllis Grant (Mi'gmaw)

kaya joan (Kanien'kehá:ka) kaya joan (Kanien'kehá:ka) is a multidisciplinary, Afro-Indigenous artist living in T’karonto, Dish with One Spoon Treaty territory.

Prestin Fleming Mercredi (Nêhiyaw) Prestin is a proud Two-Spirit Nêhiyaw with a passion for writing, social justice, and decolonizing. They have been sharing their mediums, primarily on Instagram, with hopes to publish a book of poetry in the near future.

Keisha Erwin (Cree, Lac La Ronge Indian Band First Nation/Jamaican) Keisha is an urban reconnecting nīhithaw kaskitīwithiniw from Toronto. They are Jamaican and nīhithaw (Woods Cree) from Treaty Six territory and a band member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Saskatchewan. Keisha is passionate about their language (nīhithawīwin) and identity reclamation. They are completing an Afro-Indigenous zine and illustrating and translating a Cree kids book.

Rob Lackie (Inuk)

Kiley May (Kanien’kehá:ka)

Roberto Fatal (Rarámuri/Ute/Spanish/Mexican-American)

Kiley May is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Six Nations reserve and is now rooted in Aterón:to (Toronto). She is a Two-Spirit, transgender author, actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.

Roberto Fatal is a filmmaker and storyteller. They come from Rarámuri, Ute, and Spanish ancestors and Mexican-American culture. Their Queer, gender fluid, Mestize/Mixed identity informs the sci-fi, apocalyptic films they make, centring their work on humans who sit at the intersections of time, space, and culture. Fatal is a Sundance Indigenous Film Fellow and imagineNATIVE Director’s Lab fellow.

Rob is Inuk, born in Happy Valley Labrador, and has lived in Toronto since 2000. He is a very active community member, working with many organizations and committees.

WITNESS Community + Contributors

Phyllis Grant is a Mi'Kmaw artist. Her film credits include Maq and the Spirit of the Woods and Waseteg (NFB). Phyllis has exhibited in Canada, the USA, and Italy.

iN Community + Contributors

Scott Benesiinaabandan (Anishinaabe) Scott Benesiinaabandan (he/him) is Anishinaabe from Obishkkokaang. Scott is an intermedia artist that currently works in experimental image making and sonic materials. Scott is currently a resident in Winnipeg. He has completed a MFA at Concordia University, Montréal, in photography.

Suzanne Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) Kite (she/her) is an Oglala Lakȟota performance artist, visual artist, and composer, concerned with contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance practice.

Taratoa Stappard (Māori-Ngāti Toa – Ngāti Raukawa me Ngāti Tūwharetoa) Writer/Director of stories: TAUMANU (Reclaim) in Aotearoa|New Zealand MĀRAMA in U.K. EMKHATSINI (Between) in Eswatini & Mozambique

Thomas Anguti Johnston (Inuk)

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Thomas Anguti Johnston (Inuit) is a writer/director who works mainly in Inuktitut and in comedy. Anguti resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut, with his family.

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Tim Myles is a Mi'kmaw actor and filmmaker originally from Ktaqmkuk, the island of Newfoundland. His debut short film Little Bird is a semi-autobiographical story based on his own experiences with losing his mother in 2013. The film had its 2021 premiere at TIFF. Tim is so excited and honoured to bring it home to imagineNATIVE.

Trevor Solway (Siksika Nation) Trevor Solway, Sinakson, is a Blackfoot filmmaker from Siksika Nation. Trevor is the founder of The Napi Collective, a mentorship filmmaking society based in his community.

WITNESS Community + Contributors

Tim Myles (Mi'Kmaw - Miawpukek First Nations)

Vivien Lily Munoz-Johnson (Kanyen'kehà:ka/Mohawk) Vivien is 10 years old, Kanyen'kehà:ka/Mohawk, Bear Clan from Six Nations. She enjoys art, science, and nature. Her current dreams are to become a doctor or inventor so she can help people.

Ann Holmgren, Háldi, 2021

2021 imagineNATIVE Staff

Executive Director Artistic Director Associate Director Corporate Partnerships Manager

Jessica Lea Fleming Claudia Skunk

Social Media + Comms. Manager

Kathleen Walsh

Fundraising + Partnership Coordinator

David Morrison Adrien Ignace

Institute Coordinator

Jamie-Lee Reardon

Outreach + Events Coordinator

Teineisha Richards

Programming Coordinator

Kaitlynn Tomaselli

Content Coordinator Volunteer Coordinator Institute Administrative Assistant Fundraising Administrative Assistant Programming Administrative Assistant Social Media + Comms. Assistant Operations Administrative Assistant

Melissa Johns Tara Hakim Jerushah Wright Bliss Bondy Field Liberty Jesse King Kikki Guerard Nishina Loft

Festival Book Coordinator

Vanessa Martin

Festival Copy Editor

Amanda Clarke

Bookkeeper Accessibility Coordinator Festival Venue Events Coordinator Online Support Coordinator

Sunny Kim Katarina Ziervogel Angela Sweeting Agatha Cheng

Industry Days Coordinator

Joseph Cardona

Production + I.T Support

Collyn Rezsnyak

Lead Video Editor

Daniel Saavedra

Video Editor Events Production Digital + Interactive Web Build

Samuel Jiménz Leyva 50/50 Performing Arts Collective Krishna Solanki

Programming Committees: Digital + Interactive Film + Video

Scott Benesiinaabandan Siku Allooloo Jaene F. Castrillon Jennifer Lee Smith

Festival Book + Design Festival Trailer Trailer Sound Design Marketing Services Public Relations Human Resources

Terry Lau & Joey Wong, Beehive Design James Monkman Chandra Bulucon, Puppy Machine Innovate by Day Damien Nelson, Want & Able Arts Consulting Elena Romanova

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WITNESS 2021 imagineNATIVE Staff

Niki Little

Victoria Kucher

Digital + Interactive Coordinator

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Naomi Johnson

Operations Manager

Administrative + Festival Coordinator

imagineNATIVE Staff

Nia:wen/ Miigwetch/ Marsii Thank you

Jason Edward Lewis (Initiatives for Indigenous Futures/

imagineNATIVE continues to grow and thrive because of the support we receive from our kin, community, partners, allies, and accomplices. We appreciate your time, collaboration, encouragement, and insight. We look forward to sharing many more Festivals together.

Risa Veffer (Telefilm)

Jayson Moore (TakingITGlobal)

Robert McKaye (The Bentway Conservancy)

Jean-François Obomsawin (APTN)

Roberta Jamieson

Jennifer Corriero (TakingITGlobal)

Rufus Glassco (CJ Foundation)

Jennifer Moore (RBC)

Sadia Zaman (Inspirit Foundation)

Jessica Lea Fleming (Guest Curator)

Sandra Valenzuela (TIFF)

Jim O'Reilly (Chawkers Foundation)

Santo Aveiro-Ojeda (iN Residence)

Christy Martin (Miziwe Biik)

Josh Nilson (East Side Games)

Sarah Hunter (K. M. Hunter Foundation)

Aditya Sahil Babbar

Cynthia Lickers Sage (50/50 Collective)

Julie Mclean (Bell Media)

Scott Miller Berry (Workman Arts)

Dale Corlett (Partner)

Justin Bull (Web Support)

Skawennati (AbTeC)

Adriana Chartrand (Telefilm)

Damien Nelson (Want & Able Arts Consulting)

Dr. Julie Nagam (imagineNATIVE Board)

Stéphane Cardin (Netflix)

Al Magee (Magee TV)

Danielle Gagnon (APTN)

Kahentawaks Tiewishaw

Steve Loft (Canada Council for the Arts)

Alan Bacchus (imagineNATIVE Board)

Deanna Wong (Reel Asian)

Alanis Obomsawin (2021 June Programming)

Deb Day (Innovate By Day)

Karen Te O Kahurangi Waaka (Partner)

Tank Standing Buffalo (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Alenn Predko (Hand Eye Society)

Deirdre Logue (Vtape)

Karine Tremblay (APTN)

Tash Naveau (Toronto Arts Council)

Alex Kanavangh (IATSE Local 874)

Derrick Ross (Slaight Music)

Katherine Bruce (Planet In Focus)

Teineisha Richards (imagineNATIVE/Voice Over Actress)

Alisi Telengut (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Dinora Lohema Glassco (CJ Foundation)

Kathy Avrich-Johnson (Bizable Media)

Terry Lau (Beehive Design)

Alison Fraser (Telus Storyhive)

Doreen Manuel (Capilano University)

Kent Monkman

Theola Ross (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Ana Barajas (YYZ Artists' Outlet)

Elizabeth Weatherford (Indigenous Media Initiatives)

Kerry Swanson (Indigenous Screen Office)

Toleen Touq (SVAC)

Angela Britto (Regent Park Film Festival)

Emily Fitzpatrick (Trinity Square Video)

Klaus Georg Hansen (Partner)

Tom Mcleod (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Angela Mastronardi (IATSE Local 873)

Emmanuelle Petrakis (Canada Media Fund)

Kona Goulet, (imagineNATIVE Board)

Tonya Williams (Reelworld)

Angie Balata (Inspirit Foundation)

Eric Lauzon (Air Canada)

Lidi Giroux (East Side Games)

Tracy Rector (Nia Tero)

Anne Lajla Utsi (Partner)

Eva Hellreich (Neighbourhood Arts Network)

Liisa Holmberg (Partner)

Trevor Cameron (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Anne Pick (imagineNATIVE Board)

Eva Thomas

Lillian O'Brien Davis (Gallery 44)

Valerie Creighton (Canada Media Fund)

Antonia Taylor (MakeWay)

Evelyn Pakinewatik (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Lindsey Scully (Netflix)

Vanessa Pfeiffer (Warner Media)

Aram Siu Wai Collier (Reel Asian)

Fern Colao (Pinewood Studios Group)

Lisa Ducharme (APTN)

Vicky Moufawad-Paul (A Space Gallery)

Asha Veeraswamy (LandJam+)

Francisco Tarque (2021 Land Jury)

Lisa Jackson (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Victor Lyon (ICF Facilitator/ Community Outreach)

Audrey Rochette (University of Toronto)

Glenn Gear (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Loretta Todd (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Zacharias Kunuk (2021 June Programming)

Banchi Hanuse (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour Donations)

Greg Pratt (Quest A/V)

Luisa Alvarez Restrepo (Warner Media)

Zerlina Whitecrow (ICF Community Outreach)

Barbara Chirinos (Telefilm)

Greg Woodbury (Partner)

Mazie Longboat (LandJam+)

Bernard Doucet (Sobeys)

Hans Engel (Directors Guild of Canada)

Marieke Vandekolk (TD Bank)

Bradley Paul (ICF Co-Facilitator)

Hepi Mita (2021 June Programming)

Mark Haslam (Ontario Arts Council)

Camille Usher (Indigenous Curatorial Collective)

Ian Maracle (50/50 Collective)

Mathieu Chantelois (Canada Media Fund)

Candace Scott-Moore (50/50 Collective)

Ianeta Le'i (Partner)

Melanie Hadley (Warner Media/ imagineNATIVE Board)

Darlene Naponse (imagineNATIVE Board)

Indu Vashist (SAVAC)

Michelle Derosier (2021 imagineNATIVE Tour)

Doreen Manuel (Partner)

J.L. Watson (Canada Council for the Arts)

Mike Mcconnell (Technicolor)

Chandra Bulucon (Soundpuppy)

Jacqueline Segal (CBC)

Monique Manatch (LandJam+)

Cheryl Hirasa (Partner)

James Mckay (BMO)

Morgan Sears-Williams (Canadian Filmmakers

Chloe Perelgut (Innovate By Day)

James Reckseidler (Partner)

Chris Eyre (2021 June Programming)

Jamie Whitecrow (IFC Project)

Natalie Abdou (Weaving Connections)

Chris Kennedy (Partner)

Janice Dawe (Bizable Media)

Paula Shewchuk (Department of Canadian Heritage)

Chris Lee (Inspirit Foundation)

Jarret Youngtwomen (ICF Facilitator)

Pauline Clague (Partner)

Chris Vajcner (NSI)

Jasmin McSweeney (Partner)

Pauline Shirt (Grandmother/imagineNATIVE Cultural Advisor)

Christine Friday (ICF Community Outreach)

Jason Baerg (Guest Curator)

Peggy Kyriakidou (NABET-700 M UNIFOR)

(Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace)

Distribution Centre)

Suzanne Lacey (Bell Fund)

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WITNESS Nia:wen / Maarsii / Miikwehc / Thank You

Quazance Boissoneau (Humber College)

Jason Ryle

Adam Moffatt (50/50 Collective) (Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre)

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imagineNATIVE Board)

Phylicia Davis-Wesseling (Partner)

Congratulations to the 2021 imagineNATIVE Institute Labs participants! iN ORIGINALS CAPILANO MENTORSHIP - PD CHALIFOUX & MICHEAL AUGER CSIF MENTORSHIP - JONELLE BELCOURT CSV MENTORSHIP - KILEY MAY LIFT MENTORSHIP - TIM MYLES

iN/HAROLD GREENBERG FUND STORY EDITOR MENTORSHIP

HARMONIZE MENTORSHIP

HAYLEY MORIN

JOSH DEPERRY

EFM PRODUCER FELLOW

SERIES LAB

EVELYN PAKINEWATIK

KRISTINA FITHERN-STIELE

SHORTS LAB PARTICIPANTS

FEATURES LAB

JONATHAN ELLIOTT

ASHLEY KILABUK SAVARD

MITA TO’OMALATAI

JL WHITECROW

DANA JEFFREY KHAN

SAMANTHA SORRENTI

ARMANDO BAUTISTA GARCÍA

HAYLEY MORIN

& ITANDEHUI JANSEN

ROBERT DODGINGHORSE DARRYL HAUGEN

DIRECTORS LAB COLLEEN THURSTON

asinnajaq

ROB FATAL

ADELINE BIRD

EVELYN PAKINEWATIK

RACHEL GARRICK

CHAD CHARLIE