imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has announced the film and video works that will be presented as part of the 18th Annual Festival, October 18-22, 2017 in Toronto.
With multiple world, international, Canadian and North American premieres, imagineNATIVE will present over 100 feature films, documentaries, shorts, and music videos created by Indigenous filmmakers with almost three quarters of the films (72%) made by Indigenous female directors.
imagineNATIVE is proud to include Our People Will Be Healed, the 50th documentary in 50 years from revered filmmaker, Alanis Obomsawin, keeping on the subject of her last four films: children's rights. Our People Will Be Healed focuses on the Cree community of Norway House, Manitoba, and their innovative approach to educating First Nations students.
Documentary features receiving their world premieres at imagineNATIVE include Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier (d. Shane Belcourt, LiSa Jackson) that peels back the layers of the true-crime story revolving around a captivating reclusive woman from a small northern Manitoba reserve whose catfishing of an NBA superstar made international headlines; and Glwa: Resurgence of the Ocean-Going Canoe (d. Hillary Beattie, Vina Brown) that tells the story of Tribal Canoe Journeys - a decades old gathering on the Northwest Pacific coast.
imagineNATIVE will present additional feature length documentaries including the Canadian premiere of Out of State (d. Ciara Lacy) following two Indigenous Hawaiian inmates incarcerated in Arizona; the North American premiere of Rio Verde. El Tiempo de los Yakurunas (d. Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento) which explores the perception of time in three small villages intertwined by the Amazon river; the international premiere of MANKILLER (d. Valerie Red-Horse Mohl) examining the legacy of the formidable Wilma Mankiller, who overcame rampant sexism to emerge as the Cherokee Nation's first female Principal Chief; and Birth of a Family (d. Tasha Hubbard) about three sisters and a brother separated at birth reconnecting for the first time.
imagineNATIVE will also present the world premieres of two dramatic features including Juliana & the Medicine Fish (d. Jeremy Torrie) which follows the story of 12-year old Juliana as she's forced to repair an awkward relationship with her father (Adam Beach) following her mother's death; and Kayaking for Beginners (d. Zoe Hopkins) where 14-year old Ella is determined to travel the length of the Inside Passage to testify against a proposed pipeline that would see oil tanker traffic through her beloved homeland waters. imagineNATIVE will also present Sweet Country, from director Warwick Thornton and starring Hamilton Morris and Sam Neill in a period western set on the Northern Territory frontier where justice itself is put on trial.
imagineNATIVE will also screen a number of short film programmes with ten varied themes including the anticipated return of The Witching Hour, the annual midnight horror/comedy series; Receptors, a series of experimental, dramatic, and documentary shorts; Ambient Light, shedding a light on the polar region with five shorts from Sweden, Greenland and North America; and Channel 51 Igloolik, celebrating 30 years of Inuit video art with a world premiere screening of Bowhead Whale Hunt by Carol Kunnuk and Zacharias Kunuk - the first episode from the seven-part television series, Hunting with my Ancestors.
More programming for the 18th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be announced in the coming weeks. imagineNATIVE's Early Bird Ticket Packages and Festival Pass are on sale now.
IF YOU GO:
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
October 18-22, 2017
imagineNATIVE Early Bird Ticket Packages and Festival Pass
are on sale at a reduced price until Sunday, September 24, 2017
Call - TIFF Box Office on 416-599-TIFF (8433)
Online - TIFF Festival Partners and Third Party Events
In Person - TIFF Box Office at 350 King St W, Toronto, ON
For more information, call 416.585.2333 or visit www.imagineNATIVE.org.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous festival showcasing innovation in film, video, audio and digital media. The Festival presents the most compelling and distinctive works from Canada and around the globe, reflecting the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrating the vitality and excellence of Native art and culture in contemporary media.
imagineNATIVE 2017 Film + Video Facts:
115 film and video works programmed
All made by an Indigenous director, producer and/or writer
101 Indigenous nations represented
16 countries represented
A vast majority of film + videos created by Indigenous female directors (72%)
67 Canadian films/videos
43 World Premieres, 22 International Premieres, 6 North American Premieres, 7 Canadian Premieres, 8 Ontario Premieres, 6 Toronto Premieres
imagineNATIVE 2017 Programmed Film + Video:
Pictured: Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier
Videos