2021 Schedule

Gifts from the Elders - 60 mins.

Gifts from the Elders documentary follows five Anishinaabe youth on a summer research project with their Elders. The stories shared with the Elders' youth guide them on a journey back to proceeding generations that lived a healthy lifestyle off of the land.

Their stories chronicle the devastating impact that environmental and cultural dispossession had on the flow of knowledge from Elders to youth and ultimately on their people's health. As their summer comes to an end, the youth emerge with “gifts” of knowledge and teachings from their Elders, inspiring a renewed determination to forge a hopeful and healthy future for the next generation.

The Sacred Relationship: Healing the Water, Healing Ourselves - 60 mins.

The Sacred Relationship explores how reconciling the relationship between Indigenous people and Canada can lead to healthier water. Featuring Indigenous Elders and top Western scientists, The Sacred Relationship explores Indigenous worldview, water and ceremony, European settlement and colonization, reconciliation, and common ground between Indigenous and Western science.

Sex, Spirit, Strength - 45 mins.

Indigenous people face some of the highest rates of sexual and physical violence, substance abuse, HIV, and suicide in Canada. However, statistics never tell the whole story. Sex, Spirit, Strength follows Michael and Jack, two young Indigenous men, as they shed the stigma and shame associated with sexual health and gender identity. Michael, as a former addict who lived a high-risk lifestyle that left him with permanent scars. Jack, a transgender gay man, is committed to bringing pride back to two-identity through education and activism. With compassionate eyes, Sex, Spirit, Strength takes a candid look at these two brave young men's challenges and triumphs as they reconcile their past, embrace their identities, and strive to make a positive difference in their communities.

Journey of Indigenous Gender Identity - 23 mins.

The Journey of Gender Identity traces the gender diverse/Two-Spirit Indigenous people through their pre-contact and then after residential schools. We learn what that journey means for the future Two-Spirit people on Turtle Island today.

Trans and Native: Meet an Indigenous Doctor Giving Them Hope - Dr. James Makokis 8 mins.

What is it like to provide trans care on an Indigenous reserve that serves 2,400.00 people in central Alberta? For this Two-Spirit Cree doctor, it's more than his job. Dr. Makokis created a unique approach to transgender care, combining Indigenous and Western teachings.

Nowhere Land - 15 mins.

This short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which only exists now in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her, and younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled, and left the government manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land had generations of Inuit before them.

Three Thousand - 14 mins.

In this short film, Inuk artist Asinnajaq plunges us into a sublime imaginary universe - 14 minutes of luminescent, archive-inspired cinema that recast the present, past, and future her people in a radiant new light.

Timuti - 30 mins.

In this short film, artist Jobie Weetaluktuk turns his gaze on his family and the power of ritual through the story of a young woman and her unplanned child. In Inukjuak, an Inuit community in the Eastern Arctic, a baby boy has come into this world, and they call him Timuti, a name that recurs across generations of his people, evoking Timutis alive and dead, who will nourish his spirit and shape his destiny.

Freedom Road: Context - 55 mins

Freedom Road is a five-part documentary series (15 mins each) that tells the inspiring story of one First Nation's battle to resolve a brutal colonial legacy that uprooted and transformed a self-sustaining community into an isolated island, only a short distance from the Trans-Canada highway.
This story begins over a century ago when the City of Winnipeg decides that the water surrounding the traditional Anishinaabe territory of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation will be diverted and used as Winnipeg’s primary water source. Their ancient burial grounds, environment, and ways of life are forever disrupted, and access to opportunities and essential services are severed. Enforced residential schooling and a tainted water supply compound the devastating impact. Community leader and former combat engineer Daryl Redsky shed light on how generations of complex planning, cultural preservation, and mobilization have led us to the current moment and the construction of Freedom Road.

Men - Part 2: 15 mins.
Women - Part 3: 15 mins.
Youth – Part 4: 15 mins.
Elders – Part 5: 12 mins

August 2021 - First Nation Stories

The Power of Spirit - 45 mins.

What happens to a young child who is removed from their home? Seven generations of Canadians know first-hand. Trust was broken, love was lost, and respect was challenged. In The Power of the Spirit, several Indigenous families share their stories about how they attempted to overcome residential schools' impact.