by Veronica Wood
Not only a film festival, the event organizes programming of audio storytelling, VR, music, and a gallery art crawl. Luckily, the festival brings clear skies and eager participants spread across picturesque Old Town Toronto.
In the main cinema complex, there lives a new media and digital art space open to exploration by festival-goers, which included language revitalization robots, two-bit games, and even an built-out arcade. The artists dreamt of a VR world with grandmother sky, of canoes with hand controls, and of a bright future for Indigenous media and technology.
The film programming is the core of the festival, with screenings taking place across six screens in the venue. Programming included features, shorts, panels, and even a pitch forum. One evening's programming was a community art crawl, with featured artists along the way to present their work.
I was able to check out several shorts series- one of particular interest was the Witness Series, a co-production between the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund and Canada Film Fund. The series explores narratives of climate change through diverse intersections with Indigenous culture. Five teams of filmmakers and mentors produced one short film each, covering topics from dwindling reindeer population to the devastation of wildfires. One filmmaker even grappled with his personal experience of how climate change affects migration - for rural community members to migrate into the cities. For him as a two-spirit native, this could mean more than a chance of scenery, but also new encounters with non-tolerance and homophobia. Filmmaker Sadetło Scott from the Northern Territories of Canada presented a short documentary about language loss, and the linguistic activists working to revive their mother tongue - an effort to maintain their culture and language, even as territories are shrinking due to increasing climate challenges. ‘Masí to all the filmmakers and their creations’ she says, and addresses the audiences in Thįchō and in English.
The Art Crawl led festival-goers into galleries and which opened up conversations about reparations, environment, loss, and politics. Spread throughout several blocks downtown, they featured hundreds of Indigenous artists throughout twenty venues. One partnership of Digital Constellations and Indigenous Youth Roots led to an atmosphereic collaboration of artists Amanda Amour-Lynx, Samay Arcentales Cajas, Mel Compton, Nico Laliberte-Cozzens, Nishina Loft, Sheri Osden Nault, Thomas Robertson, Rihkee Strapp, Sydney Wreaks, and Emily Wright - a world where queer Indigenous methodology shines in cyberspace. Another artwork, a mixed-media installation ‘A Seat at the Table’, expressed real recorded voices of council members, as well as a video footage of empty landscapes, representing the lack of democracy in back-door decision making.
By the weekend, directors and producers were ready to present at the Pitch Forum, where Indigenous filmmakers presented their ideas in front of a panel of industry leaders. Director Bruce Miller pitched a beautiful documentary about a Canadian family who makes intricate regalia. A large filmmaker team pitched a native sit-com-style coming-of-age TV show. The industry panel then had a Q&A session where they were able to help the filmmakers see into any blind spots and hone their pitches. If you are interested in pitching at the next ImagineNative, be sure to stay tuned to their website and newsletter for upcoming announcements.
After the active week of screenings, the organizers of ImagineNative closed the festival with a last opportunity to come together as a whole for the awards night. With a roar of applause they announced the much-loved audience favorite ‘Hey Viktor!’ as Best Feature Film. “Mamá” won the award for Best Documentary Feature.
Cash was awarded to winners, as well as the announcement of new grant making programs and mentorships which are available throughout the year. ImagineNative also offers screenwriting labs and directors labs for emerging filmmakers in the spring.
Overall the festival felt like it fostered a true home for Indigenous content, and a real sense of camaraderie. As the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor may grow nearer, Indigenous peoples from the Sapmi to the Marui to the Hopi formed lasting connections and powerful medicine of the arts. As always, Indigenous people are well known to be incredible storytellers; this festival is an opportunity to show that Indigenous stories are not only necessary, but world-class works of art.
Key takeaways for Indigenous artists and filmmakers:
