ImagineNATIVE
Ivan Sen’s new film, Toomelah, a look at the life and choices of a young boy in a remote community of Australia, will screen as part of imagineNATIVE 2012. Ten-year-old Daniel doesn’t seem to have a lot of options the tiny town of Toomelah, a former outback mission. He doesn’t like school, so after a few scrapes with the other kids and his teacher, he decides not to bother going back. His parental figures have pretty much checked out, and he can’t go a day in town without someone telling him what a disappointment his father is. Friendship and guidance...
Director Lance No documents the lives of one family living on the Tibetan Plateau in Dung, screening at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Being resourceful is an important part of daily life on the plateau, and yak dung has become the most important piece of the puzzle. Showcasing the endless amount of uses for dung, this documentary gives a very interesting look into the different ways that people use to survive. The idea of this film may turn certain viewers off, but the final result is a visual wonder. Filmed on the Tibetan Plateau, Dung offers viewers a...
Monique Verdin has a deep love for Lousiana, a place she lived as a child and returned to as an adult. Her Father’s family is descended from the Houma Indians, and after graduating high school, Verdin moves in with her Grandmother in St. Bernard Parish to begin a video document of the “old ways” that the Houma used as a way to live off the land. As she becomes more entrenched in her descendants’ culture, she begins to look into the modern advancements that are threatening to suck her beloved Lousiana dry. As Lousiana is hit by Hurricane Katrina, then...
Director Tim Wolochatiuk’s docudrama We Were Children is an examination of Canada’s Indian Residential School system, as recounted by two survivors Lyna Hart and Glen Anaquod. Both Hart and Anaquod were torn from their families and reservation homes as very young children and shipped to residential schools in Manitoba and Quebec, respectively. Forced to speak English and punished for speaking their own languages, they were subjected to years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. The movie is a harsh indictment of a shameful period in Canadian history and of the Catholic Church, but the mix of talking head testimony...
Tweet This! Youth Shorts Program screens as part of the imagineNATIVE Film Festival, and features 10 shorts by young filmmakers. Describing troubled childhoods, dreams for the future, and peppered with more than a few hilarious moments, the program is sure to be a hit. Films include I for NDN, Being Brown, Blackbuster, Mauvais Reeeeve, La Joie de Vivre, Reviens-moi, Aci ni micta cikateriten, Journal d’un Sevrage, Songline to Happiness, and Fighting Chance. It’s difficult to pick only a few shorts from the Tweet This! Youth Shorts Program because they’re all so fantastic, but there are a few that stand out...
Screening as part of the imagineaNATIVE festival, The Witching Hour Shorts Program features five short films ranging from a frightening Sámi folktale in Eahpáraš, to the sci-fi thrills of The 6th World. Also playing in the program are the shorts NiiPii, Retaliation For A Greater Good, and Trapped. Blending the tradition and spirituality of Native people with science fiction, director Nanobah Becker creates a new land with The 6th World. One of the more ambitious short films in The Witching Hour Shorts Program, just the style alone is enough to recommend this. Astronaut Tazbah Redhouse is aboard the first spaceship...
The 13th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is coming to town, bringing us five days of the latest film, video, radio and new media work by Indigenous peoples. Running from October 17 to 21, 2012, it will feature 80 works from Canada and around the world, with an impressive total of 24 world premieres. The festival opens with a free Welcome Gathering at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (16 Spadina Road), which is open to the public. The opening night screening, later that evening at 7:00 pm, is the...
It seems strange to be making announcements for this year’s imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival which doesn’t start its run until October. However, passes go on sale today and some parts of the line up have already been confirmed, so really, it’s never too early to get excited about film programming! Running from October 19th to 23rd, this international festival celebrates the work of Indigenous peoples from around the globe....
It is not a secret that the trauma inflicted by the Residential School System, in which Native children were forcibly removed from their homes and families and put into schools designed to assist them in assimilating with “white culture” has been widespread and devastating. I don’t claim to know much about it, except that the Government felt that it was a good idea at the time, later recognizing the detrimental effects this had on First Nations peoples the country over, finally apologizing in 2008. Themes relating to the Residential School System have permeated First Nations art and culture for many...
What Men Don’t Know is a 25 minute documentary film that forms part of the imagineNATIVE festival’s Spotlight on Taiwan, screening Saturday October 23rd at 3pm. Director Xie Fui-mei focuses her lens on a coastal community of the Tao (also known as Yami) in Taiwan for an interesting and informative look at their culture and traditions....
