 Aboriginal Filmmakers Break Stereotypes |
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Page 1 of 2 The program cover of the sixth annual ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival (http://www.imaginenative.org/ ) is witty, but it is also pointed. Danis GouletIt is a spoof of the television show Star Trek, with a representation of native filmmakers on a strange red planet aiming cameras and sound recording devices at the aliens around them instead of phasers. The headline reads: “These are the voyages of indigenous storytellers. ImagineNative: To boldly go where no film festival has gone before.” The joke is that the Trekkie image is wildly different from the stereotypical deerskin-clad Indians of the Hollywood films of John Wayne’s era. The message is that aboriginal filmmakers will not be pigeonholed and that the ImagineNative festival is going to help them avoid that.  Image from ImagiNative Film Festival marketing material “Hollywood and the film industry and Canadian filmmakers have not had the greatest legacy of aboriginal representation,” says Danis Goulet, Executive Director of ImagineNative. “We felt we really had to support works being created [all over the world] by aboriginal producers and directors.” Largest indigenous film festival in the worldImagineNative, a Toronto-based festival with a budget of $400,000 in 2006, is set up to foster the development of indigenous filmmakers. Specifically, it accepts short and feature films from producers and directors who identify themselves as aboriginal.TIPS
There’s a little slack, though. If a film has “substantial indigenous involvement,” such as an indigenous writer, the festival will consider it as well, says Goulet, who is Metis. Roughly two thirds of the films at the 2005 festival, its sixth year, were Canadian and the rest were from international indigenous filmmakers, including some extraordinary work from the Philippines. In all, the festival screened 123 films in 2005, more than double the number it showed in 2002. That makes it the largest indigenous film festival in the world, says Goulet. “Our goal is to present the most diverse program we can,” she says, adding that the festival program is geared toward film-lovers of all types. Festival offers nine awardsTo help spur indigenous filmmaking internationally, the festival commissions several short films each year, as well as offering nine awards that total $7,000 in cash. An example is the $1,000 award from CHUM Television for best dramatic feature.As well, the festival offers a development deal worth $5,000 with APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) for the best pitch of a drama project, and a prize worth $3,000 of studio time and post-production services for the best documentary pitch. Another plum is the chance for one filmmaker to participate in a mentorship program with Cindy Witten, Vice-President of Programming at Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting. Continued... |
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