MĀORILAND SHORTS #2:
A FRAGMENT OF HOME
A selection of short films from ImagineNATIVE Film Festival
Presented by Jason Ryle
I’m calling the screening A Fragment of Home. Ideas at play include the obvious: the shorts presented clearly show different pieces of Canada; but also the personal, there’s something in each that reminds me of my land, whether something physical, evocative, beautiful or frightening – we all carry home with and as someone who doesn’t live in his traditional homeland, there are things poignant, advantageous, etc about it all. Sometimes a fragment of home can be something to cherish, sometimes it’s a piece you’d rather forget about completely, but always they are pieces that teach you, and ultimately fragments that make the whole.
AMAQQUT NUNAAT (The Country of Wolves)
2011
Prod: Louise Flaherty
Dir: Neil Christopher
Louise Flaherty (Inuk) is from Clyde River, Nunavut. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Education she has been working to promote Inuktitut literacy and is currently program manager of the Nunavut Teacher Education Program at Nunavut Arctic College. Amaqqut Nunaat is her first film.
I-N-D-I-A-N
2007
Dir: Darryl Nepinak
Winnipeg-based Darryl Nepinak (Saulteaux) has screened several of his humorous short videos at imagineNATIVE.
MY STORY
2013
Dir: Shania Tabobondung
Wasauksing
Shania Tabobondung is a 17-year old Anishinabekwe from Wasauksing First Nation. Her passion for the written word and visual arts has led her to seek future academic studies in journalism and/or media arts. My Story was the 2013 imagineNATIVE Tour Video Contest winner, which had over 40 films in contention.
LA REVE D’UNE MERE
2007
Dir: Marie-Eve Grignon
Marie-Eve Grignon (Algonquin) made this project through Wapikoni Mobile program, a travelling production studio for youth in Canadian Aboriginal communities.
SPIRIT OF THE BLUEBIRD
2011
Dir: Jesse Goucanada
Co Dir: Xstine Cook
Jesse Gouchey (Cree) is an animator and filmmaker from Red Deer, Alberta. His visual art has been exhibited in several galleries around central Alberta. Jesse is currently a junior artist on an Indigenous graphic novel, and enjoys how his art has brought them closer to his heritage.
THE GIFT
2011
Dir: Terril Calder
Terril Calder (Metis) is a filmmaker, animator, visual and performance artist. Her first film Canned Meat, premiered at imagineNATIVE. She also collaborated on and animated the short film Choke, and is currently working on her first animated feature. She is a graduate of the University of Manitoba’s BFA program.
RED RIGHT HAND
2004
Dir: Jeff Barnaby
Born and raised on the Mi’gMaq reservation of Listuguj, Quebec, Jeff Barnaby (Mi’gMaq), a consummate iconoclast, dropped the drum and the feather for sex, violence, and booze hound broken Indians, earning him the badge of ‘bad boy of Native Canadian cinema’. Having only graduated in 2004 from Concordia’s film production program, he has already won numerous awards and his films have been shown around the world. Rhymes for Young Ghouls won the TriBeCa 2012 Creative Promise Award for Narrative.
NIKAMOWIN
2007
Dir: Kevin Lee Burton
Kevin Lee Burton is a Swampy Cree filmmaker from God’s Lake Narrow’s, Manitoba. Kevin won The Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Emerging Talent at the 2005 imagineNATIVE Festival.
SIRMILIQ
2011
Dir: Zacharias Kunuk
Inuk
Building on themes explored in his recent documentary feature, Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk) tells the story of Sirmilik’s restless skies through the voice of an inuit elder.
THE VISIT
2009
Dir: Lisa Jackson
With a background in documentary, Lisa Jackson expanded into fiction with SAVAGE, which won a 2010 Genie award for Best Short Film. She is currently working on fiction and documentary projects, including writing her first TV script for a teen supernatural series. She is Anishinaabe and has a BFA in Film Production from SFU.
