Program Length: 82 minutes
Forest Echoes
Eva Grant (St’at’imc) 17.5m • 2024 • Canada • English
A love story set against the backdrop of the climate crisis and the opioid epidemic, Forest Echoes follows Echo and Wild, two urban Indigenous land defenders. On the one-year anniversary of their arrest on the front lines, a death in their community opens old wounds but also offers them a chance to heal.
HAAGUA
Marc Antony Chavez (Nahua, Michoacán & New Mexican-Spanish descent), Octavio Aceves Coutiño • 15 minutes • 2024 • Mexico, USA • English, Spanish
An Indigenous surf film that celebrates the timeless bond between humanity and the ocean, “Haagua” follows a group of Native American surfers as they revive ancestral traditions, blending cultural resilience with the cultural art of surfing to honor the past and inspire the future. Surfing emerges not merely as a sport but as a rediscovery of cultural practices and a revival of an original way of life.
Indigenous surfers: Andy Nieblas(Acjachemen), David Flores Ramos (Nahua), Kaliko Kahoonei (Hawaiian), Shuuluk Leo-Retz (Kumeyaay), Amon B. Chavez (Nahua-Carib), Reg Macarro (Payomkawichum-Ojibwe), and Marc Chavez (Nahua-Xicano).
Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices
Directors: Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, Carmen Kuptana, Eriel Lugt, Jennifer Kilabuk, Johannes Vang, Marc Fussing Rosbach, Princess Daazhraii Johnson
22 Minutes • 2024 • Norway/USA/Canada/Greenland • English, Kalaallisut, Southern Sami
Five powerful stories from the frontlines of climate change, where Arctic Indigenous communities fight for survival and the future they want to see. From Inuit sisters passing on ancestral wisdom to prepare their daughters for a future without the land they once knew, to green energy projects threatening Sámi traditions, the film reveals the painful trade-offs of so-called progress. It captures the resilience of Tuktoyaktuk’s youth as coastal erosion forces them to relocate, echoing the scars of colonisation. A Greenlandic perspective exposes the connection between overconsumption and environmental destruction, while Alaska Native communities unite to protect their vital salmon fisheries.
For Our Rights
Johannes Vang (Sámi-Kven) • 28m • 2025 • Norway • Northern Sami, Southern Sami
The Supreme Court has ruled that the wind power plant located in a Sámi reindeer grazing area violates the rights of the Sámi people; however, the wind turbines remain in place. In response, young Sámi activists are protesting through civil disobedience to compel the government to take action and protect the rights and identity of the Sámi community.
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