BUY TICKETS NOW

Thursday May 3, 9PM
TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3
350 King Street West, Reitman Square
Join the filmmakers at the SMOKE TRADERS screening after-party at The Rivoli, 2nd floor pool room, 334 Queen St. W www.rivoli.ca

2nd Screening:
Friday May 4, 3:45PM
Cumberland Cinema 2
159 Cumberland Street (At Avenue Road)

imagineNATIVE is pleased to partner with Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival to co-present the world premiere of SMOKE TRADERS, directed by Ojibway filmmaker, Jeff Dorn. Synopsis: In the dark of night Mohawk boatmen speed across the river separating the Canadian and US lands of the Akwesasne Territory loaded with cartons of cigarettes. It’s dangerous work, and lucrative. The Canadian government wants to shut it down, but the trade has raised entire Mohawk communities out of poverty and they’re not about to give it up. Shooting over three years, filmmakers Jeff Dorn and Catherine Bainbridge gained extraordinary access to a cast of charismatic characters who tell the Mohawk side of the story, their history with tobacco, Aboriginal rights and the turf wars with federal and provincial governments. Are they criminals who must be stopped? Or are they a new breed of entrepreneurs who deserve support?

Come and support Aboriginal filmmaking and this intriguing new film at the largest documentary festival in North America. For tickets: In person: 783 Bathurst Street (1 Block South of Bloor), Monday – Friday: 11am-7pm, S-S: 11am-5pm, April 26-May 6: 11am-9pm, phone: 416-637-5150

Full details and tickets: hotdocs.ca
Hot Docs on Facebook
Twitter: @hotdocs 

Driving to Manitowaning and Wikiwemikong, a.k.a. Wiky(!), was a lot of fun. Violet and I have an embarrassing attraction to 90’s dance music. This led to Night-at-the-Roxbury moments of head-banging and heavy base thumping the entire way up the Trans Canada highway to stunned passersby. Driving onto Manitoulin Island was quite the experience – with -23 degree evenings and a recent (if only) snowstorm of the season, through winding roads and dark, forested mountains (for Ontario), I felt like I was going to see Bruce Wayne’s lair. Holy moose crossing, Batman!

Our days on Manitoulin were fun and snow filled! We had some great food at the local hangout, The Musky, nutritional alternatives at a free “healthy eating” initiative at the arena and some specialty “After Eight” mint latte’s from the reserve’s new (and better version) of Starbucks, the Cedar Cafe. We met with Wiki public school teacher Jeff Eshkakogan, who really drove home the importance of the Festival’s tour to smaller communities — that as funding cuts continue in the arts in larger cities, it has a rippling effect as programs led by those in larger cities to cut their outreach programs and initiatives to remote ones. I am glad that whatever the turn out of our programming, there is at least the option for these communities to engage new forms of artistic expression and to see art that reflects and is created by their cultural peers. A perfect example of this influence was at the Debajehmujig Cultural Centre in Manitowaning. Audrey Wemigwans did an incredible job advertising the screening around the community with colourful posters, and has instilled in her employees a passion and active interest in bringing a diversity of artistic voices to the residents of the region. Volunteers and board members turned out and happily assisted in its success, serving popcorn to our audiences at the Wapos Bay’s screening.   Check out the warm welcome from the audience below!

Next, we drove to North Bay – a great town with great shops and galleries and an active artistic community. En route to Temagami, we visited The White Water Gallery, run by one of the tour’s great supporters and promoters, Clayton Windatt. It was also great to connect with Holly Cunningham for our Nippissing screenings, who runs the Near North Mobile Media Lab, an organization that provides the tools media artists, students, filmmakers and audiences in Northern Ontario need to produce, present and enjoy contemporary media in all its forms.  Screening Wapos Bay on Bear Island (Temagami) was fun, but the process for getting there was a little scary to this urbanite – a mild break in the weather turned the ice road to slush (not water, but close!) and the island’s hilly roads into ice slides. Thank god for 4WD! No, seriously. I was happy to be back on the mainland, mentally kissing the ground as road traction returned to survivable.

From North Bay, and after screenings at Nipissing University (otherwise known as the real life construction of The Labyrinth), we flew on Bearskin Airlines to Sault Ste. Marie. I’d never been on a plane so small that I couldn’t stand up in it, but I think I did pretty well having only screamed “we’re going down!” twice the entire trip.

Sault Ste. Marie was a cool town. I admire downtowns that are not run down even with the existence of a mall next door. We found some great organizations to partner with in the coming years and had some great screenings at Algoma College, thanks to Margaret Neveau, their Anishinaable Arts Coordinator, and left with a long list of local organizations that could be potential screening co-presenters and promoters in the coming years.

I have to say that if you are ever in Sault Ste. Marie, you have to eat at Cesira’s Italian Restaurant. They have a great atmosphere, an amazingly affordable 3 course meal and THE best banana cream pie ever. I think Violet and I disturbed others with our groans of pleasure for each bite. I will be thinking about that slice I had for a long time. It was so good I couldn’t be distracted to take a picture!

I am SO glad I went on this important part of imagineNATIVE’s outreach activities. It was a real change in perspective from living in Toronto, where one takes for granted the events and artistic activities that abound and proliferate so easily, to communities where these events are appreciated and engaged in as a rare chance to experience new ideas about art and expression reflected in Canada’s and the world’s greater Indigenous arts community. It seems like the importance of the imagineNATIVE Film and Video Tour will only continue to grow and flourish as a gem amongst the rocks of the Canadian Shield of the north!

And I can’t wait to be a part of it again!

The weeks have gone by so fast and I’m still on the road. So far the 2012 imagineNATIVE Film + Video Tour has visited Timmins, Moosonee and Moose Factory in northern Ontario.

View Violet Chum Blog, March 13 in a larger map

The Youth Program, which consists of 8 short films made by youth or for youth, has great content ranging from comedy, life experiences, animation and storytelling. The Feature Program, Wapos Bay: Long Goodbyes is a film for all ages. It is a comedy animation film.  In these communities, the audience enjoyed watching both programs.

Youth Screening at John R. Delaney Youth Centre, Moose Factory

The Youth Filmmaking workshops, led by filmmaker and artist Keesic Douglas, have been exciting. The youth are so creative and energetic in making their short film videos. I am looking forward to seeing what else they come up with throughout the tour and to start the voting!  All of the youths’ videos being made during the tour will be posted on our website where everyone can vote for their favourite, sending a lucky winner to imagineNATIVE 2012 in Toronto, where we will program their work on the big screen.

Workshop at Timmins High with Keesic Douglas

As well, it has been great seeing my family and friends as I journey on with the 2012 Tour. The further north I ventured, the more snow on the ground, finally enjoying the winter experience filled with snow, flurries, dry cold air, and temperature reaching -25C below. The one thing I was not expecting to see was the dog sleds riding across the river from Moosonee to Moose Factory.

Dogs sledding between Moosonee and Moose Factory

More updates to come soon about the Tour.

Violet

Jessica at the Timmins Youth screening

The North Bay Nugget: imagineNATIVE Goes on Tour

We will be in North Bay on Thursday March 8 at Nipissing University. For more information please email info@imagineNATIVE.org.

Working at imagineNATIVE has given me a great deal to be thankful for – an amazing group of co-workers, the opportunity to be immersed in good art and interesting people, and the chance to make a difference by creating opportunities for Aboriginal artists to get their work out to the larger industry.  It’s also this time of year when I begin to worry about what lies ahead for the organization – one more festival cycle over, and a clean slate in terms sponsorships and funding support.

Everyone is afraid of the economy just now. Cutbacks are being felt globally as everyone trims the fat.  Unfortunately, the arts are amongst the most tender bits to be trimmed first. It is evident that everyone understands that people need medicine, food and shelter, but people can’t seen to connect how the arts creates economic opportunity, builds community, and creates a vision for the future.

The holidays are when imagineNATIVE looks to its community for support. I cannot say that what imagineNATIVE does to support artists, by creating training opportunities, facilitating the sales of work, and offering career building opportunities, is more important than supporting your local homeless shelter or donating to medical research. But I can definitely say, it is no less important. With this, I hope that people can shift their thinking a bit this holiday season and understand that donating to the arts is as vitally important and timely as any other type of charitable giving you might do during the holidays.

Please help support the hundreds of artists we support each year by making a donation of any amount to imagineNATIVE. Aeroplan Miles are also welcome, and will be directed into Artist Travel for October 2012.  Please CLICK HERE to make a donation of any amount, and thank you for seeing the value in what we do.

Wishing everyone a safe and merry holiday season.  We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for the New Year!

-Kerry

This past November I have been busy at the imagineNATIVE office working on festival wrap-up things. It was such a great festival this year meeting new people, and having our mediatheque at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (I manage our mediatheque so that’s where I spend most of my festival time). Other than attending the Opening and Closing Night gala’s and The Beat, I managed to attend the Buffy panel discussion and Jason Edward Lewis’sVital to the General Public Welfare exhibition. At the Closing Awards Show the imagineNATIVE team performed a dance routine to Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation (we changed the lyrics to “you are a part of imagineNATIVE”), which was one of my fave and most memorable moments of the 2011 festival.

With all the festival wrap-up now coming to a close, I have the opportunity to participate in some local activities! Most recently, I was able to attend one of five Professional Development Series for Artists and Arts Managers (programmed by Denise Bolduc, Arts Presenter, for the Thunderbird Centre), a Web & Blog Creation workshop facilitated by Archer Pechawis, Web Developer, New Media Artist and a very informative teacher. With Archer’s guidance, my colleague Jessica and I had the opportunity to create our first blog site. It was such a fun and interesting class, I learned a lot and I can’t wait to finish my blog site, which will be a work in progress over the holidays.

Christmas is near; so many Christmas parties going on, shopping to do, and again patiently waiting for the snow (hope I don’t have to wait until next year, LOL).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

V.

Violet Chum is the Administrative Assistant at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. She assists all of her co-workers with various projects and daily activities in preparation for the festival. Violet is a Moose Cree First Nation member from Moose Factory Island in northern Ontario. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design University and a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Learning from Lakehead University. She has volunteered her time and worked part-time at imagineNATIVE prior to becoming a full-time employee. Violet is also a visual artist and has created a number of works in figurative, portraiture and landscape painting and drawing, of which her works were exhibited at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Ontario College of Art & Design University’s Professional Gallery and Graduate Exhibition, Gallery CC, and an up-coming exhibition in October 2011.

The 2011 Festival ended exactly four weeks ago and distance has made the heart grow fonder. It’s an interesting experience working behind-the-scenes and it’s really only been in the past few days that I’ve managed to get perspective on all the incredible things that’ve happened since iN kicked into high gear back in July and didn’t stop until Oct. 23rd.

This past imagineNATIVE was by far our largest ever: we had more programming, higher audience numbers, and more special events than at any time in our history. I’m immensely proud of what we achieved together (the iN crew and you). It was such an amazing feeling throughout the Festival and it’s always so beautiful to see old friends and make new ones – all in celebration of our art and creativity.

But I’d also be lying if I said it was easy.

There’s a phenomenon we in the film festival world call The Post-Festival Blues, and we all experience it in some form or another. It usually happens the week immediately after the Festival finishes (as with my lovely colleagues), but mine was delayed a couple weeks after spending time in Norway and England (a bit of work, a bit of rest, a bit of a sprained ankle, but more on that later). I’ll do my best Carl Jung scowl to offer up my pop-psycho analysis and lay the blame squarely on love.

Reality is somewhat suspended during the Festival: it takes over your life and you happily give your life to it. You’re surrounded by friends and the community and this mega love-in happens that becomes very addictive. (I have to be honest and say that you do also get used to being the centre of attention for the week. ) But when the Festival is over all that ends overnight, et voilà, welcome to the Blues.

But thankfully they end as we all gear up for another round next year! And that’s where we’re at right now. A few grant reports here, several new grant applications there, and next year’s programming and events start to take shape. We also have the annual Tour and a new series of indigiFLIX to look forward to in the new year.

One of the many things I totally love about my job is the opportunity to travel. Two days after imagineNATIVE ended this year I left for Norway. Yes, it was a crazy decision and I should have stayed to rest, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend the Indigenous Film Conference (which IsumaTV documented) hosted by the Sami Film Centre. Held in Kautokeino – way up north – the conference featured several special guests from around the world. As always, our hosts were impeccable and Sapmi is an incredible nation: so beautiful, so much love and such talent. It was amazing to meet new, up-and-coming filmmakers, see and spend time with old friends, several of whom were also just at imagineNATIVE. Needless to say, there was a lot of reindeer eaten – all meals, plus snacks. They’re masters at preparing the cute buggers in interesting and tasty ways. Loved it, miss it.

After five days north of the Arctic Circle, I got to spend some quality time with Bird Runningwater of the Sundance Institute (and one of iN’s Patrons) in Oslo. It was our first time in the city, which has some fab modern architecture, such as their new opera house. With Bird around, fun’s along for the ride, and fun was definitely driving.

Then it was off to London to stay with an old school friend for five days. I love London. It’s a second home and all I wanted to do was live on the sofa, eat my favourite food, and play video games. All that was brilliantly accomplished and then some (wee bit of shopping, several pubs….when in Rome). Also managed to twist my ankle on the one day in the past five months that I was all but stationary. Barely moved 10 metres that day. Typical me. Still kind of hurts…

OK. I need to get back to work. Grants beckon seductively, and who am I to resist? Great to see so many of you at A Tribe Called Red last Friday. I’m still playing catch-up with all my neglected friends who I so cavalierly set aside to focus on the Festival. If I haven’t seen you yet: I love you and I’ll see you soon.

Jase. xo.

-

Jason Ryle is the Executive Director at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Jason oversees all aspects of the organization including operations, the annual festival and programming. He sits on the Board of Directors for Vtape, an independent video distributor, and is also a script reader for The Harold Greenberg Fund, which provides financial aid to Canadian filmmakers. As an award-winning writer, Jason has written for the Smithsonian Institution and numerous publications throughout North America. He made his first short film in 2005 and has been programming alongside imagineNATIVE’s Programming Team since 2002.

I was convincing myself up until the last minute – “you NEED to be there, Sage. You’ve got to see all the new music coming out. Isn’t Winnipeg a hub for Aboriginal music and arts?”  I, with our Events Team at imagineNATIVE, program all the live performances at imagineNATIVE, the big one being The Beat, but also our Opening Night Party, New Media Mash-Up and Closing Awards Show. This was my opportunity to hear potential acts for imagineNATIVE from across Canada, and North America, in one place.  Fair enough. I was convinced. So, I booked my flight and brought my butt to Winnipeg.

Thursday, November 3, I’m in Winnipeg and all settled in with the first order of business: check out Manitoba Music and visit Alan Greyeyes.  Alan is one of the main (volunteer!) organizers of AMW and on numerous accounts Alan was referred to as “The Man.” Not a stretch by any means.  His commitment and enthusiasm are unbelievable, and it shone through at all of the shows AMW put on. After getting the down-lo on the next few days and saying “heyyyyy,” I skipped over to Urban Shaman Gallery. I’ve wanted to visit Urban Shaman forever, so I was very excited to be able to check the space out. The exhibition on now includes the work of Rolande Souliere (Ojibway and a Toronto Native) and Jenny Fraser (Aboriginal Australia).  I enjoyed Jenny’s “Name That Movie,” it was witty, funny and unimposing in its examination of colonization.

That was only Thursday afternoon, the same day I’d gotten to Winnipeg.  In addition to learning that Winnipeg is the windiest city in Canada, the next three nights and four days were full of discovering new music, meeting awesome peoples, exploring Winnipeg and non-stop dancing!  I really didn’t think being in Ontario put me in an “Ontario bubble,” but it kind of has. Which is why I felt so incredibly grateful to have been able to travel to see these artists I may never have had the chance to see.  Highlights of my trip include seeing the Golden Agers at the pow wow and performances by Leela Gilday, World Hood and Sherry St. Germain.

Leela Gilday

The first event I went to was the Singer/Songwriters Concert to check out the young opening acts for Leela Gilday and the woman herself. It’s no wonder she took home the Aboriginal Female Entertainer of the Year at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards (APCMAs). Wow! That woman inspires me to the max.  She is a powerhouse, and swept the audience off their feet.  One of the first songs she played was Dene Love Song, which is one of my all-time Leela favourites, but I’d have to say I really loved the high energy of Disappearing Humans. Jason Burnstick rocked it in that one too.  The cherry on top was Jason and Leela’s chemistry on stage – it was fun and endearing, adding to the intimacy of the whole show.

World Hood

Friday’s schedule saw the APCMA’s and A Tribe Called Red’s Electric Pow Wow.  I headed over to the Awards to catch the first bit before the Electric Pow Wow, but realized doors opened at nine for Electric Pow Wow and I did not want to miss World Hood. So opting out of the Awards I headed over to the Pyramid to catch them. I had only seen and enjoyed a couple of their videos on YouTube, though it’s always hard to gauge what you’re getting into based on that, so I was waiting in anticipation for their set. With few feelings of regret about missing the Awards, I was so stoked that I got to see World Hood. I was nothing but blown away.  The mixture of dub, “world” and Estrella’s voice were the perfect prelude to Electric Pow Wow and the perfect introduction to playing their album on repeat for the rest of my Winnipeg trip (and a little less fanatic now, but still playing it enough to enjoy).

Manito Ahbee

The next day I got all done up to go check out Manito Ahbee. I really love watching pow wow dancers. The colour and designs of their regalia and the movement of the dancers’ feet always captivate me, entrancing me for hours on end.  When I first got to Manito Ahbee I immediately bumped into Derek and Naomi Martin of Tribal Vision.  What a treat to bump into someone from home (at least, close to home), all the way out in Winnipeg!  It really comforted me and pumped me up even more about seeing the dancers. Of my two days at the pow wow my favourite dancers were the Golden Agers.  The Jingle Dress Golden Agers to be exact!  Those older women were so determined and beautiful as their precise footwork synced perfectly with the drum.

By Saturday AMW was coming to a close, and who better to end a week/end of new and exciting sounds in Indigenous music than Derek Miller?! Derek Miller is pretty much a household name; he rocks that guitar, keeps the crowd moving and singing along all night, and, on a side note, that very dapper, rockabilly-inspired look he sports these days only adds to the enjoyment of the show too (if I do say so myself)!

Sherry St. Germain

Just before Derek’s show, a young woman by the name of Sherry St. Germain was set to open.  I’d never heard of her before and had absolutely no idea what to expect.  To be honest, I was expecting country or folk, as that usually trends.  She walked up to that stage and I am instantly brought to a Janis Joplin performance back in the day (even though I’m far too young to have ever possibly seen a Joplin show, she still put me in the zone). This woman has a big, bluesy voice and an obvious connection to her music, bringing everyone along for the journey.  The high energy of her performance was what real rock and roll is – lively, rebellious and loud!

Post AMW, I spent my Sunday at Manito Ahbee, eating stadium food, checking out vendors (I got a preetty pair of earrings) and watching the dancers, until I made my way over to my Auntie and Uncle’s, where I spent some time with my three younger cousins.  They made sure to give me a tour of Winnipeg (which is actually a really cute city), bringing me to “the bridge,” “the village,” “the big park,” a haunted hotel and downtown.  The next morning I got on my flight, which is when I really had the opportunity to think about all the potential of future imagineNATIVE events!  I am so incredibly excited about the music coming out, and even more so about meeting with the imagineNATIVE Events Committee to discuss everything I just saw and experienced.

Thank you, Winnipeg!

peace out,
sage

-

Sage Paul is the Events and Communications Director at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, where she has worked since 2004 and now oversees the creation of the yearly campaign; the outreach, marketing and publicity strategies; online and digital initiatives; outreach activities including the annual tour and indigiFLIX screening series; and produces all of the events at the annual festival. Sage is from Toronto and is a member of the English River First Nation.

FEATURE PRESENTATION | WED NOV 9 | 6:45 PM | INNIS TOWN HALL | BUY TICKETS
DIR. LYNN TRUE, NELSON WALKER | TIBET/USA 2010 | 85:00 | DIGIBETA | TIBETAN W/ENG. SUB.
CO-PRODUCER/CO-DIRECTOR: TSERING PERLO | DIRECTORS IN ATTENDANCE
CANADIAN PREMIERE | RATED G

Summer Pasture is a feature-length documentary about a young nomadic couple living with their infant daughter in the high grasslands of Eastern Tibet. Filmed during the summer of 2007, Summer Pasture offers rare access to an area seldom visited by outsiders—the highly insular community of Dzachukha, nicknamed “5-most” by the Chinese for being the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote area in Sichuan Province.

Locho and his wife, Yama, depend on their herd of yaks for survival, just as their ancestors have for generations. In recent years, however, Dzachukha has undergone rapid development, which poses unprecedented challenges to nomadic life. Rigid government policies, rangeland degradation, and the allure of modern life have prompted many nomadic families to leave the pastures for permanent settlement in towns and cities. According to the nomads, the world has entered duegnan—dark times.

Summer Pasture is a sensitive portrait of a family at a time of great transition, and the film evolves as an intimate exploration of Locho and Yama’s personalities, their relationship, and the complicated web of circumstances that surrounds them. The documentary captures their travails with illness, infidelity, and the dissolution of their community. In the face of mounting obstacles, Locho and Yama gradually reveal the personal sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter’s future. Through its subtle observation of the central characters, Summer Pasture provides a deeply personal account of family survival and what it means to be a nomad in a swiftly modernizing world.

INSPIRATION AWARD HONORABLE MENTION—FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 2010
OFFICIAL SELECTION—LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2010

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Lynn True graduated in Urban Studies and Architecture from Brown University and began her film career at NBC News and PBS. Nelson Walker has a BA from Brown University and an MFA from Columbia University. He began his career working for the Discovery Channel and History Channel. He has worked as a visiting instructor at Tibet University in Lhasa. Their independent films include iThemba|Hope (Sundance Channel 2005) and LUMO (PBS’s POV series 2007)