Biindigaate Film Festival to feature 40 indigenous films

Two documentary films shot over a period of years kick off this year’s Biindigaate Film Festival, to be held Sept. 27-30 in Thunder Bay.
One of them documents the tobacco trade from a First Nations perspective, while the other explores Inuit history in the high arctic.
“They rode along with the Mohawks, getting an inside scoop on what’s going on with the smoke traders,” said Jamie Monastyrski, committee member and spokesperson with the Biindigaate Film Festival, about the 51-minute film Smoke Traders. “It’s filmed over three years and it tells the story of the tobacco trade from the Native perspective.”
People of a Feather, a 90-minute documentary film by Inuit filmmaker Joel Heath, features footage from seven winters in the Arctic during an exploration of the Inuit’s past, present and future cultural relationship with the eider duck on the Blecher Islands in Hudson Bay.
2010 Genie award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson’s 15-minute drama Parkdale will also be screened during the festival, just before Smoke Traders.
“On Playback Magazine, she was one of the top 10 filmmakers to watch in 2012,” Monastyrski said. “Not Aboriginal filmmakers, but Canadian filmmakers.”
Jackson and six of the other filmmakers are scheduled to be in attendance at their films, including Smoke Traders director Jeff Dorn, Every Emotion Costs director Darlene Naponse, Liar director Adam Garnet Jones, Inheritance director Joe E. Ironstand and local directors Jason Hunter and Henry Beardy, who both have two films in the festival.
“The short film is a shorter version of Crossroads, but I put this one as two brothers,” Beardy said about his seven-minute drama, Times Up. “As a kid, he always wanted to play a guitar so I guess the she-devil came in and gave him the skills.”
Beardy’s other film is a six-minute documentary, Keeping Part of My Tradition, which he worked on with Zack Tait.
“He has a place out here to hunt past the Norwester,” Beardy said. “I let him tell his story about his hunting experiences and why he does it.”
Hunter’s films are Bannock, an eight-minute documentary, and Awakening, a four-minute music video.
“Whether you enjoy hard hitting documentaries, dramatic features or eclectic and experimental films, the film festival this year has something for everyone,” Monastyrski said. “We’re going four days this year — it’s a platform for amazing indigenous artists. There’s going to be visual art, film and there is going to be music as well.”
The Gala Opening at Definitely Superior Art Gallery on Thursday evening will feature music by Robin Ranger and Classic Roots, and An Evening at the Foundry on Friday will feature entertainment by Jason Burnstick and music by Nick Sherman.
“And on Saturday, for the first time there will be live script reading from a Metis filmmaker, Adam Garnet Jones,” Monastyrski said. “That’s free and open to the public.”
A complete schedule of events and films is available online at biindigaate.ca