ANGRY INUK and BONFIRE to Headline imagineNATIVE 2016

imagineNATIVE's opening night gala on Wednesday, October 19 at the Hot Docs TEd Rogers Cinema will be Alethea Arnaquq-Baril's Angry Inuk.

In this award-winning documentary, Arnaquq-Baril sheds a powerful light on anti-seal hunting campaigns and the relevance of THE HUNT to the lives of the Inuit. Long a vital source of food and income for the Inuit, the seal hunt has been disrupted by high profile, international campaigns fronted by celebrities and led by well-funded ANIMAL rights organizations. The ensuing bans on seal products have caused financial devastation to northern communities, creating what the filmmaker calls the Inuit Great Depression. Angry Inuk follows an emerging group of Inuit activists - armed with their own sense of humour and justice - as they insert themselves into the international discussion.

The closing night gala on Sunday, October 23 at TIFF Bell Lightbox will be the North American premiere of Bonfire, the debut work by Dmitry Davidov, a rising Yakut filmmaker from Russia. Deep in the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia, Ignat is a hard-working widower who keeps to himself and tries to do the right thing. After a tragic accident involving his son, Ignat finds an unlikely friendship with a local boy. Bonfire is a dramatic feature that displays a tender, tactile portrait of the complexities of family and the fragility of life.

More programming for the 17th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be announced in the coming weeks. imagineNATIVE's Early Bird Ticket Packages and Delegate Pass are on sale now.

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 Early Bird Ticket Packages and Delegate Pass are on sale at a reduced price until Thursday, September 29, 2016. Call - TIFF Box Office on 416-599-TIFF (8433). Online - tytix.tiff.net/scripts/max/10.17.40.32-44000/maxweb.exe. In Person - TIFF Box Office at 350 King St W, Toronto, ON.

For more information, call 416.585.2333, visit www.imagineNATIVE.org or follow on Facebook/Twitter: facebook/imagineNATIVE / @imagineNATIVE.

Pictured: Scene from Angry Inuk. Photo By Qajaaq Ellsworth.

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