imagineNATIVE Film Festival

Program & Schedule

Film & Video / Exhibitions / New Media / Radio / Spotlight / Artists / Film Index
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All radio works can be listened to here or on-site during the Festival at the NFB’s Interactive Lounge at 150 John Street, Thurs. Oct. 20 – Sat. Oct. 22, 12pm – 10pm, and Sun. Oct. 23, 12pm – 5pm.

Bring Your Drum
Janet Rogers
Canada, 2011, 54 min

Protest music has a long, important lineage in Indigenous music. From Buffy Sainte-Marie and Alanis Obmomsawin to John Trudell and Murray Porter, the current history of Indigenous activism through music is explored in this captivating documentary.

Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora) was born in Vancouver and is from the Six Nations of the Grand River. She is a writer, poet and performer who currently hosts Native Waves Radio, Vancouver Island’s only Indigenous radio show. Janet is the co-recipient of imagineNATIVE’s inaugural Radio Art Commission that challenged Indigenous artists in Canada to create an audio art piece for the 2011 Festival.

Native Solidarity News: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Irkar Beljaars
Canada, 2009, 22 min

Singer, activist and new media artist Buffy Sainte-Marie discusses her legendary career and gives insight into her past, her successes and her future plans. With her trademark honesty and charm, Buffy continues to captivate audiences the world over.

Montreal-based Irkar Beljaars (Métis) has produced and hosted Native Solidarity News on CKUT-FM for five years. His latest project is a podcast called Red Power Radio.
Indian Summer: Billy Joe Green Sings the Residential Blues
Kim Ziervogel
Canada, 2010, 24 min

Celebrated blues musician Billy Joe Green discusses how his unique style of music emerged from overcoming childhood traumas suffered while at residential school. Through the blues, Green found personal redemption and musical success.

Kim Ziervogel (Ojibway/Mohawk) has produced the awardwinning CBC Radio One series ReVision Quest for four years, which won imagineNATIVE’s Radio Award in 2010, and runs the Aboriginal Trans Media Unit at CBC Manitoba.
Introducing Miss Georgia Lee
Daniel Browning
Australia, 2010, 54 min

Cabaret singer Georgia Lee was a trailblazing Torres Strait Islander whose legendary 1962 album Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under was the first ever recorded by an Indigenous artist in Australia. Lee crafted a remarkable – but oft-overlooked – career that took her around the world, including on tour with Nat King Cole. Recently passed away at the age of 89, Georgia Lee’s incredible story and voice live on for new generations to appreciate.

Over the past six years, Daniel Browning (Bundjalung/Kullilli/South Sea Islander) has produced documentaries and features for Awaye!, an Indigenous arts and culture program on ABC Radio National, which he also presents.
Speaking Out Special: Digging Roots
Rhianna Patrick
Australia, 2011, 29 min

Catch up with Digging Roots while on their first visit to Australia. ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta join host Rhianna Patrick to discuss their music, careers and creative process while Down Under.

Rhianna Patrick is a Torres Strait Islander who has worked with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for almost ten years. She has been the host and producer of ABC’s national Indigenous radio program, Speaking Out, since 2008.
RADIO ART COMMISSION
Janet Rogers Joey Shaw
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Janet Rogers

In addition to regular radio programming, this year imagineNATIVE launched its inaugural Radio Art Commission, an innovative project that challenged Indigenous artists in Canada to create “sound art.” Janet Rogers and Joey Shaw were selected to each create an audio artwork suitable for radio broadcast. Their work is presented at the NFB Interactive Lounge and will premiere alongside film and video works at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as a part of the Landscape Figures Experimental Shorts Program (Rogers) and The Uprooted Shorts Program I (Shaw). Close your eyes, turn up the volume, and immerse yourself in the aural environments of this year’s radio artists.

Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora) was born in Vancouver and is from the Six Nations of the Grand River. She is a writer, poet and performer who currently hosts Native Waves Radio, Vancouver Island’s only Indigenous radio show. Janet is the co-recipient of imagineNATIVE’s inaugural Radio Art Commission that challenged Indigenous artists in Canada to create an audio art piece for the 2011 Festival.

Joey Shaw (Inuk), a.k.a. Warrior Minded, was born in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and grew up in Montreal. He is a poet, lyricist and vocalist with an interest in sound experimentation. Joey is the co-recipient of imagineNATIVE’s inaugural Radio Art Commission that challenged Indigenous artists in Canada to create an audio art piece for the 2011 Festival.