imagineNATIVE to Present Kent Monkman Premiere & More

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is bursting at the seams with the best in Indigenous Art, Digital Media Works and Exhibitions, including the opening of the new installation by Kent Monkman, the inaugural Digital Media Art+Cade, and a music showcase at The Beat's DJ POW! WOW!.

On Friday, October 16, as part of the public opening of Kent Monkman's new installation, The Rise and Fall of Civilization, at the Gardiner Museum, imagineNATIVE will present Kent Monkman: Miss Chief in Motion, a series of Monkman's short films featuring Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, the artist's iconic drag queen alter ego. Kent Monkman will be in attendance for an audience discussion after the screening, followed by a tour of the exhibition guided by the artist himself. The Rise and Fall of Civilization will continue on display until January 10, 2016, and features a "buffalo jump" crowned by a sculpture of Miss Chief and two full-sized bison. Sculptures of cubist-style bison plunge headlong into the gallery, violently shattering at the base of the cliff in a pile of broken ceramics, referencing the build-up of bones often found at buffalo jumps in the 1800s, as well as the history of Indigenous ceramics found at sites across North America.

imagineNATIVE with support from the Canada Media Fund, is proud to present the first-ever Digital Media Art+Cade, a new interactive hangout showcasing Indigenous-made video games, web series, radio and audio works, digital apps and virtual reality experiences from October 15 - 18 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The Digital Media Art+Cade will feature retro arcade-style booths and consoles loaded with five video games created by Indigenous females aged 13 to 24; the PlayStation 4 hit Never Alone; Indigenous Virtual Reality demonstrations featuring A Tribe Called Red and Tanya Tagaq; and six Audio Works featuring storytelling, documentaries and podcasts.

imagineNATIVE's beloved Art Crawl is back with a mixture of inspiring, insightful, and entertaining visual art exhibitions! The historic 401 Richmond Building will once again play host to the best in contemporary Indigenous media art, commissions and retrospectives on Friday, October 16, in four galleries: Vtape/VMAC Gallery, Trinity Square Video, A Space Gallery and YYZ Artists' Outlet.

imagineNATIVE's music showcase The Beat, presented by Slaight Music, will make its triumphant return to Revival nightclub on Saturday, October 17 with DJ POW! WOW! featuring three dynamic Indigenous DJs: DJ Akkil, fusing '80s synth with traditional Sámi joiks; Glitclit, pumping out a mix of heavy electronic beats with out-of-this-world chanting; and madeskimo, a.k.a. Geronimo Inutiq, remixing traditional Inuit music with modern electronic sounds.

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.

The 16th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be held in Toronto October 14-18, 2015.

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