Thanks to everyone who came out to imagineNATIVE last Wednesday!
Last Wednesday, the CSIF was pleased to present the best of North American Aboriginal independent filmmaking with a selection of films from the Toronto imagineNATIVE Film Festival. In addition to award-winning films from Toronto, Montreal, and even Alaska, we were especially proud to screen four films by Calgary filmmakers Kevin Littlelight, Cara Mumford, Terrance Houle, and Christiana Latham. Award-winning Aboriginal animator Jack Cheyann Saddleback joined us afterwards for a panel discussion with the filmmakers.
Here are some pictures. Thank you to everyone who came out to support our artists!
Calgary filmmaker Cara Mumford. Her film "Coda in G Minor" screened as part of the CSIF's imagineNATIVE program.
Mount Royal College Native Student Centre Coordinator Cory Cardinal and CSIF Programming Coordinator Melanie Wilmink.
CSIF Board members James Reckseidler, Christopher Hutchens, and Luke Black pick up snacks before the screening.
New Tribe Editor John Medeiros.
People beginning to take their seats in the theatre. Almost time for the films!
Calgary rapper Sage Morin delivers an emotional performance in honour of residential school survivors and their children.
CSIF Programmer Melanie Wilmink asks our panel of Aboriginal filmmakers "What inspires your work?"
Filmmaker Jack Cheyann Saddleback discusses environmental themes in his short, "The Uprising."
Filmmaker Terrance Houle talks about the importance of screening works by Canadian Aboriginal filmmakers.
Kevin Littlelight's "Freudian" short, "Samurai Kid" opened the program.
Thank you again to our many hardworking volunteers who helped make possible the CSIF’s presentation of films from the imagineNATIVE Film Festival.
Upcoming CSIF events include a Classic Film Screening 7 p.m., Aug. 11 in the Sofa Cinema (J2, 2711 Battleford Avenue SW); a CSIF Member Night screening 4:30 p.m., Aug. 16 at the Plaza Theatre; and our very special Urbanity project, a collaboration with the TRUCK Gallery happening in September!
(For more about Urbanity read here.)
Keep checking our CSIF Programming Blog for updates on great CSIF events and opportunities, or contact Farrah Alladin, Communications Coordinator, at communication@csif.org to be added to our e-mail list.
imagineNATIVE Contest Winners!
Congratulations to our Wednesday night draw winners!
The imagineNATIVE Film Festival draw prizes were provided courtesy of Nakoda Lodge & Conference Centre and the Micah Gallery Native and Western Art Gallery.
Marian Weiss will be receiving a night’s accommodation in the King Jacuzzi Suite at the Nakoda Lodge west of the city.
Our second winner, Tinu Sinha, receives a gift certificate to the Micah Gallery nestled in the heart of downtown Calgary. The Micah Gallery offers a diverse selection of authentic handcrafted items and Fine Art from North America’s First People.
Pictures of last night’s imagineNATIVE screening of films by Aboriginal filmmakers to come. Keep checking out our CSIF Programming Blog for more updates on what our community’s up to.
Audience members were encouraged to enter our draw, making them eligible for great prizes from the Nakoda Lodge and Micah Gallery.
Fairies and Indians
Christiana Latham is a local artist whose short, Fairies and Indians will be part of a joint screening between the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and Toronto’s imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Latham writes about her film here:
Fairies and Indians is a visual representation of the exploration of the differences between the two cultures I was brought up in, I am British and Northern Dene. I am strong and guided in both the Western and Indigenous worlds. I decided to highlight my obvious cultural differences utilizing film. I chose to employ the spontaneous dance of children, music and drawings.
Rich textures and an overlay effect were used to express my ideas. I wanted not only to celebrate my cultural differences but also to note the obvious differences by dividing them side by side within the film. Fairies have always reminded me of growing up in England and Pow-Wows remind me of my time spent in Southern Alberta, Canada.
The film portrays a whimsical, dream-like storybook of my individuality.
Between the Tree and the Bark
In Algonquian, Wabak means “future”. Kevin Papatie is an Algonquin filmmaker whose film Wabak tells the story of the first Algonquian to be born. Sometimes encouraged by the Good, sometimes discouraged by the Evil, the young child questions if he should continue on his path.
Wabak will screen at the CSIF’s presentation of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival on July 22.
Papatie’s film Entre l’arbre et l’écorce (Between the Tree and the Bark) was selected by Air Canada for inflight broadcast and is one of the Air Canada enRoute Film Festival’s nominees. You can view Entre l’arbre et l’écorce and the other enRoute nominees HERE.
Be sure to check out Wabak as well as nine other outstanding Aboriginal films at the Calgary imagineNATIVE screening exclusively at the Plaza Theatre on July 22!
Wabak by Kevin Papatie
July’s Classic Film Screening Theme is “The Future of the Past”
The Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers is proud to present our next instalment of the Classic Film Series, Tuesday, July 14th at 7 p.m. in our Sofa Cinema.
July’s screening is curated by Luke Black. His theme this month is “The Future of The Past”.
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The future! Science fiction loves to speculate on the future and motion pictures love to lavish science fiction speculation with epic and spectacular imagery. Towering glass metropolises and flying vehicles abound. Anything is possible in the distant future as the social and environmental variables become more and more difficult to predict.
The beauty of our classic film this month is that we are today living in the distant future that the filmmakers were speculating about. A hundred years after the premiere of what is now considered to be the first work of cinematic science fiction, Georges Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), we can have a lot of fun digging up these early science fiction films in order to see how our modern world compares to our grandparents’ visions of the future.
Our Classic Film this month is particularly spectacular. Written by a popular science fiction author, it unfurls for us the writer’s vision of a hundred years of history to come. While not all of his predictions are very accurate, the basic elements of his future history thesis do turn out to be eerily prophetic.
So hop on your hoverboard and come on down to the CSIF to marvel at what could have been! You won’t be disappointed!
-Luke Black, July’s Classic Film Curator
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