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-Evening-
5:45pm
Heart Medicine: Métis Shorts (1h 12m + 15m Q&A)
7:30pm
New Beginnings: Wapikoni Shorts (1h + 15m Talk)
*Wapikoni Ambassador: Mathieu Germain Goodman
9:00pm
(South Terrace)
Wairoa - Maori & Pacifica Shorts (1h 15m + 15m Talk)
*Curated by Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka), Wairoa Māori Film Festival
10:45pm
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This program of short films is presented in partnership with the Shushkitew Collective. Several filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A.
Chanelle Lajoie • 4m 2021 • Canada • English • Doc. / Poetry
Grand Mother Tongue pairs poetry, spoken in Plains Cree, and breath with the intimate imagery of strawberries being consumed bite-by-bite,and finger lick for finger lick. Together, these stories work to build a foundation of queer desire, heart medicine, and language revitalization forthose who are also seeking to connect with these intersections of self and community
Marjorie Beaucage (Métis) • 10m • 2022 • Canada • English
Part of a Harm Reduction video series, theses two videos are conversations with amazing people who have made it through the darkness of addictions and are giving back to community at Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon and at the Sturgeon Healing Lodge. These are their stories, offering hope and purpose. Good Medicine.
Christine Kirouac (Metis) • 9m • 2023 • USA • English
In Nectarine, Kirouac weaves together two separate recollections of the same childhood flashback as told to her (and the viewer) by her adoptive mother, recorded twenty years apart. As her mind travels back to growing up in rural New Brunswick alongside a Mi’kmaq reserve in the 1930’s, her aged hands peel apples in both sequences. At times memory is met with forgetfulness, details repeated word for word with a span of twenty years between them, while other parts are riddled with contradiction. As the elderly woman continues to peel the apples naked, she willingly exposes genuine thoughts on the past sharing of the land and sea while fragments of history, beliefs, values, facts and fiction fall into her baking bowl. Nectarine serves up a tense and humorous narrative about cohabitation, survival, sustenance, and generational perceptions. Kirouac uses this intimate exchange as a bridge between her adopted mother and her own estranged Metis identity while asking the viewer to ponder, who is the apple and who is the nectarine.
Faith Thompson (Metis) • 8m • 2023 • Canada • Eng.
In this short film, I decided to highlight the accomplishments of my father. He continues to inspire me every day with the hard work he does to help Indigenous communities.
Kay Chan (Métis-Chinese) • 2.5m • 2021 • Canada • Cree, English, Yue Chinese (Cantonese)
This film follows a pair of Two-Spirit Métis-Chinese youth softening a deer hide together. An experimental film about belonging and honoring your full self and ancestry, no matter where you are.
Vanda Fleury (Metis) • 4.5m • 2021 • Canada • Eng.
A Métis woman’s expression of birth sovereignty, punctuated by intimate experiences of motherhood through film poetry. She traces the storylines of identity to ancestral birthwork, spirit names, and kinship connections. "In Good Hands" is a show of resistance that contributes to the dismantling of colonial narratives that devalue kinship connections and ignore Indigenous women’s life experiences.
Amanda Kindzierski (Polish/Ukrainian, Ojibwe/Metis) • Canada • 2021 • 7m
What Kind of Help? follows a women in lockdown in her apartment. We see her living her isolated days over and over while trying to cope with the pressure of a pandemic lockdown on a extrovert. As we watch her move about her new confining life, we hear her calling for help, but what kind of help.
Amanda Smart • 6m • 2007 • Canada • Eng.
A young man goes to bold lengths to get sleep but morning commotions disrupt his peace. By two spirit filmmaker Amanda Smart.
David Garneau • 6m • 2013 • Canada • No Dialogue
Hoop Dancers is a silent video featuring four young men in powwow regalia playing pick-up basketball. The video also shows young Indigenous men engaging the contemporary world while also enjoying traditional cultural practices. It is a celebration of athleticism, cultural continuity, adaptation and beauty.
Dayna Danger • 10m • 2019 • Canada
xperimental art film expressing a queering of intimacy. What can romance look like with non-living beings? How do we honour creation? A black latex gloved hand slowly caresses a singular chapped antler, stretching, filling up the frame across a white backdrop. A minimalist tonal soundscape guides the viewer through the ebb and flow of urgent thrusts, tickling fingertips and baby oil applications.
Rihkee Strapp • 6m • 2021 • Canada • Eng.
A short satirical media collage using Twin Peaks footage to tell the story of the artist (Hawk) telling their cancerous grandmother (Log lady) about an apocalyptic prophecy. The film then unmakes itself by playing backwards with superimposed sissy hypnosis to save the future.
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This collections of shorts films is curated entirely from the Wapikoni Mobile catalogue. There will be a short post screening discussion with Wapikoni Ambassador, Mathieu Germain Goodman
Landon Moise • 4m • 202 • Canada • English
Eight-year-old Landon Moise shows us around his
favourite forested spots in his home community,
Clearwater River Dene Nation. He explains why the
environment is important.
Ulivia Uviluk (Inuk, Kangirsuk) • 3m • 2019 • Canada • Inuktitut
Wearing my Culture explores the pride that individuals
in Inuit communities take in making and wearing their
winter apparel. Thomassie looks at the bonds that are
created within family, culture, and the environment
through the creation of clothing.
Catherine Boivin (Atikamekw, Odanak) • 3m • 2022 • Canada
In rhythm with the footsteps of her Atikamekw
ancestors, Catherine immerses us in the dreamlike
universe of her morning runs.
Zachary Greenleaf (Mi'gmaq, Gesgapegiag) • 5m • 2016 • Canada • English
With the help of his friends, Zachary Greenleaf, a young Mi’gmaq from Gesgapegiag, tries to reintroduce the “three sisters” (white corn, squash and beans used in Indigenous gardens) in his community.
Raymond Caplin (Mi'gmaq, Montreal) • 2m • 2020 • Canada • Eng.
A young hunter learns an important lesson after
forgetting the offering in the woods. Missing Offering is
based on a Mi’gmaq legend of the stone dwarves called
Pukulatmuj or Wiklatmu'j.
Tony Sappier (Wolastoqiyik, Tobique) • 8m • 2021 • Canada • Eng.
Beginning with an early-morning moose hunt, this portrait of Tony (Havard) Sappier, a well-known moose- hunter and figure in the community of Tobique First Nation, provides a moving and humorous glimpse into the life of a man dedicated to hunting, to his community and to his role as a father to his youngest son, aptly named Hunter.
Derius Matchewan Papatie (Anicinape, Kitiganik) • 4m • 2018 • Canada • Eng.
A film about the passion of drumming and traditionnal singing that Derius share with his friends. This film is the affirmation of Derius’ courage.
Nathan Condo (Mi'gmaq, Listuguj) • 4m • 2016 • Canada • Eng.
"Never comes easy" is a hip-hop track about going through the struggles of life as an artist.
Louie Francis (Anicinape, Wikwemikong ) • 6m • 2017 • Canada • Eng. & Ojibwe
In his second film, Louie Francis (The Bell Rocks) explores the origins of the tales of the great serpent that is rumored to live under lake Quanja.
Isabelle Kanapé (Innue, Pessamit) • 3m • 2019 • Canada • Innu
A man spreads rumours about a local elder. To be forgiven, he will be put to the test. Ka tatishtipatakanit (Ethereal) is a poetic lesson about respect.
Amanda Roy (Ojibwe, Wiikwemkoong) • 2016 • 5.5 • Canada • Eng.
A short documentary about the personal journey of Mohawk Elder Sedalia Kawenno:ta’s Fazio in establishing a sweat lodge within the Botanical Gardens of Montreal and her work with the diverse native populations living in the city. Tio’tia:ke is the Mohawk word for Montreal which means “where the currents meet”.
Jarret Twoyoungmen (Iyarhe Nakoda, Stoney) • 5m • Canada • Eng.
In this documentary, Jarret Twoyoungmen shares an important aspect of the Nakoda culture and tradition.
Rose Stiffarm (Anishinabe, Siksika, Cowichan, Tsartlip, A’aninin and Nakoda) • 5m • 2017 • Canada • Eng.
Rose Exposed is an experimental video that talks about the significance of circles, the complexities of identity, and the importance of reflecting ourselves back into the world and the media we make.
Ottawa Art Gallery - South Terrace
Curated by Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) from the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in Aotearoa (New Zealand). A Q&A will follow the screening with the curator and filmmaker Hiona Henare.
Pati Tyrell • 5m • 2023 • New Zealand
Visually confrontational with ritualistic connotations of an environment we may have never considered." – Craig Fasi, Pollywood Film Festival
Hiona Henare • 5m • 2023 • New Zealand • Maori
A meditation on Maori colonisation, artificial intelligence invasion and the legacy of Whanganui-a-Tara.
Rafer Raujtoki • 14m
As her family watches an old 60’s musical film, Kara is surprised to learn her Uncle used to have his own band in the same era.
Keelan Walker • 15m • 2022 • New Zealand • Eng.
A story set in a small New Zealand community during the 1980s. The protagonist, Billy (played by Frederick Pokai), is driving home from one of his regular Sunday pub sessions when he comes across a mysterious young girl named Mere (played by Isis Bradley-Kiwi), stranded on the side of the road.
Tajim Mohammed-Kapa • 18m • 2022 • New Zealand • English, Te Reo Māori
An estranged son is called home to his father’s deathbed. He must confront a family secret and resolve the conflict between him and his father before it’s too late.
Isaac Bell • 26m • 2022 • New Zealand • Eng.
In a quiet corner of rural New Zealand, a teenage boy holds the key to the greatest discovery of our time.
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Unides contra a colonização: muitos olhos, um só coração • 25m • 2023 • Brazil • Eng.
The countries of the Global North are the biggest polluters on the planet with their CO2 emissions. Thus, they created the carbon credit system, which pretends to protect forests in the Global South, which are already protected by their first nations. A typical farce of the financial capitalism known as "hot air". The enchanted beings of those forests, with their perforMAGIC ACTivations, came to reveal this great farce and invite everyone to do environmental justice with their own hands united in a great cosmic spiral.
Jay Cardinal Villeneuve (Nêhiyawi- Bush Cree/Métis) • 24m • 2023 • Canada • Eng.
Obscure Indigenous comedian Mark Buffalo went into hiding after the release of the short documentary "Is That One of Your Jokes" hit the festival circuit. A documentary crew caught up with him after he resurfaced during the covid pandemic. Shot over the course of a weekend, "Buffalo Testicles for the Soul" showcases Mark Buffalo at his best, and worst, as hilarity ensues.
Rylan Friday (Saulteaux) • 23m • 2023 • Canada • Eng.
Set over the course of one evening, Parker and his boyfriend, Darren, find themselves detoured on their trip and going towards Parker's late kokum's cabin. The men make a disturbing discovery which creates tension within the pairs already unhealthy relationship. Shot in one continuous take, Terror/Forming, will show paranoia, anxiety and tension bubbling to the surface in real time as the situation escalates and devolves into chaos.