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Fifth Multicultural Film Festival - Exploring Native Canadian Film
"Some say when a child dies, you lose your future, and when an elder dies, you lose your past." This poignant short film testifies to the need to grieve and honour the memory of loved ones.
This film finds Paul John Swiderski taking stock of his adoptive family and all they've provided for him, but when asked about his birth mother, Paul begins to wonder about his other family.
This moving account of Cory Generoux deals with the scars that racism left on his life as both recipient and perpetrator. The film reveals a simple and beautiful lesson that changed his life.
Some Elders say, 'the drum is the heartbeat of Mother Earth.' This is the story of Rocky Morin, a drummer who first felt the pull of the drum almost 15 years ago.
Hooked Up is a fresh, inventive look at the Internet that asks us to consider this question: does the Web provide Aboriginal people with a sense of community?
This is the empowering story of Rodney "Geeyo" Poucette's encounter with prejudice and his journey to overcome it. As a two spirited person, Geeyo hasn't always been so readily accepted in some Aboriginal communities.
Walking Alone is an edgy, searing portrait of an exgang member trying to make peace with his past. Shawn Bernard starts a rap group from which rises the increasingly notorious Aboriginal gang.
As a young boy, filmmaker Lorne Olson was told Indians were like apples - red on the outside, white on the inside. Apples & Indians is a whimsical and profound film that sees Lorne speeding through decades in search of his true identity.
Filmmaker Darryl Nepinak's documents his journey as he receives his Indian name. This short film takes a look at how traditional culture continues to shape and influence our modern sense of self.
Aboriginal people are in danger of losing all the traditional knowledge of their elders. Nganawendaanan Nde'ing examines the importance of traditional knowledge and how it can be shared from generation to generation.
Chartrand renders a beautiful cinematic portrait of ex-prison inmate, 29-year-old Patrick Ross. Ross was not an artist, nor a spiritual person, until he came to Manitoba's Stony Mountain Institution.
Filmmaker Tessa Desnomie celebrates the life and times of her grandmother, Jane Merasty. Born and raised on the trapline, this Woodlands Cree woman has witnessed significant changes throughout her vigorous 80 years.
In Club Native, Deer looks deeply into the history and present-day reality of Aboriginal identity. With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve - characters on both sides of the critical blood-quantum line - she reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and reveals the lingering "blood quantum" ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community.
In July 1990, an historic confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Québec, into the international spotlight and into the Canadian conscience. Director Alanis Obomsawin endured 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks, the Québec police and the Canadian army. This documentary takes you right into the action of an age-old aboriginal struggle. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades, providing insight into the Mohawks' unyielding determination to protect their land.
Following its success at the Cannes Film Festival, where it captured the Golden Camera Prize for first-time directors, the Isuma Igloolik/NFB co-production Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner received the Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Director Zacharias Kunuk has adapted an Inuit legend, which tells the story of a small community of nomadic Inuit whose lives are disrupted when an unknown shaman creates rivalries between families. Twenty years pass. Two brothers emerge to challenge the evil order: Amaqjuaq, the Strong One, and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner. Atanarjuat wins the hand of the lovely Atuat away from the boastful son of the camp leader, Oki, who vows to get even. Oki ambushes the brothers in their sleep, killing Amaqjuaq, as Atanarjuat miraculously escapes running naked over the spring sea ice.
Tkaronto is a provocative exploration of two Aboriginal thirty-something's caught in the urban crossroads. Ray and Jolene discover an unexpected connection when their paths' cross in Tkaronto (the original Mohawk word for "Toronto"). Ray has come to Toronto to pitch his TV series, Indian Jones, which is promising to be the big break Ray needs. Jolene, is passing through Toronto to interview prominent Elder Max, and is taken aback when Max presents her with an eagle feather, an honour that she feels unworthy of. As Ray faces his ambivalence about impending fatherhood and the prospect of selling his material to ignorant TV Execs, Jolene grapples with self-doubt and struggles to finish her interviews with Max. An attraction between them develops as both are drawn together by a mutual search for meaning in their urban existence. This event was sponsored by:
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