Cultural Celebrations

“Oral storytelling is at the heart of most Indigenous cultures. By telling our stories -in our own languages, from our own experiences – we are able to pass on knowledge and values and connect with each other and the world around us.”
-Tara Williamson of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, ReFrame Board Member

Cry Rock

Cry Rock

Directed by Banchi Hanuse
Canada  |  2010  |  29 min

Fewer than 15 Nuxalk language speakers and storytellers remain in Bella Coola, British Columbia – and one of those elders is Banchi Hanuse’s 80-year-old grandmother.

Should the Nuxalk stories be recorded for future generations? That might seem like an obvious question, but for the filmmaker it is not so simple. She wonders whether an electronic recording can capture the true meaning and value of these oral traditions. More importantly, can the result be considered cultural knowledge?

What Banchi Hanuse finds is that Nuxalk stories are more than mere words – when an elder dies, an invaluable link to a treasure of knowledge and experience is lost. As the filmmaker struggles with these issues, Clyde Tallio, a young Nuxalk man, retells a spine-tingling story about the Cry Rock in the bend of the Atnarko River.

Immersive and revealing, Cry Rock blends vivid watercolour animation with interviews set against the wild beauty of the Bella Coola Valley.

Awards:Best Documentary Short, Vancouver Women in Film Festival; Best Documentary Short Subject and NFB Kathleen Shannon Award, Yorkton Film Festival, Sask., 2011; Audience Choice, Dawson City International Short Film Festival, Yukon, 2011

Empty

Empty

Directed by Jackie Traverse
Canada  |  2008  |  5 min

Set to music by Little Hawk, this animated, gripping, and starkly honest story is a daughter’s tribute to her estranged mother – and a portrayal of the destruction inflicted by alcoholism.

Jackie Traverse, a graduate of the school of fine arts at the University of Manitoba, is an Anishinabe from Lake St. Martin First Nation and a multidisciplinary artist who works in sculpture, mixed media, painting, and video.

Awards:Best New Manitoba Talent, Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, 2010

Family Making Sleds

Family Making Sleds

Directed by Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq
Canada  |  2011  |  5 min

“Stories From Our Land: Stories without Words” tells a northern story from a northern perspective. Family Making Sleds clearly demonstrates the art of sled making using different medium.

How the Chipmunk Got Its Stripes

How the Chipmunk Got Its Stripes

Directed by Tulalip Native Lens
USA  |   |  2 min

Created by the youth of the Tulalip Heritage School, this story is the traditional Tulalip tale of how Chipmunk got its stripes. The film was animated by the youth using a light box technique.

If You Want to Get Married… You Have to Learn How to Build an Igloo!

If You Want to Get Married… You Have to Learn How to Build an Igloo!

Directed by Allen Auksaq
Canada  |  2011  |  5 min

“Stories From Our Land: Stories without Words” tells a northern story from a northern perspective. Learn to build an Igloo because “If you Want to Get Married…You Have to Learn How to Build an Igloo!

Innigiruti: The Thing That Sings

Innigiruti: The Thing That Sings

Directed by Nyla Innuksuk
Canada  |  2011  |  5 min

“Stories From Our Land: Stories without Words” tells a northern story from a northern perspective. Innigiruti: The Thing That Sings tells the story of how dance and accordian music became part of the Northern tradition.

Inuit High Kick

Inuit High Kick

Directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril
Canada  |  2010  |  4 min

The high kick is an ancient celebration of Inuit culture. Here is an extraordinary, “exquisitely shot” celebration – filmed in super-slow motion – of an athlete performing the traditional high kick. The jumper, Johnny Issaluk, goes as high as he can to kick a sealskin target. Then he has to land on the same foot he kicked with.

As the director says of her film, “It’s just a reminder that cultures are all different, but that in the end we’re all the same. . . . No matter where you come from, sports are all a way to keep healthy, and to challenge yourself, and to have fun with your community.”

Keepers of the Water

Keepers of the Water

Directed by Ayelen Liberona
Canada  |  2010  |  4 min

“Keepers of the Water” is a short film about a young group of native children in Fort Chipewyan, Canada. Their town sits directly downstream from the Alberta Tar Sands – the most environmentally polluting industrial project in the world. The members of their community are dying of rare forms of cancer, the fish and moose meat have tested positive for highly toxic levels of arsenic, the water is no longer drinkable, and there is no end in sight. On their own initiative, these kids came together to protest this environmental crime.

Maiden Indian

Maiden Indian

Directed by The Ephemerals
Canada  |  2011  |  3 min

From mall to museum, three women stitch together customary and trendy signifiers of Indigenous identity. Jaimie Isaac (Sagkeen First Nation), Niki Little (Garden Hill First Nation) and Jenny Western (Stockbridge-Munsee/Oneida) are members of The Ephemerals, a collective of Winnipeg artists and curators who aim to interrogate perceptions of Indigenous identity through aspects of material culture.

Running Free

Running Free

Directed by Nodin Wawatie, Chris Nottaway
Canada  |  2010  |  3 min

Wapikoni Mobile is a motorized motion picture training and production studio that works with youth in First Nations communities of Quebec. Through filmmaking young people connect with themselves and the world.

Running Free is the journey of two young people to meet their objective.

Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee

Directed by Zoe Leigh Hopkins
Canada  |  2010  |  3 min

Daydreams of a Native-language spelling bee inspire a young girl.

Taking Over

Taking Over

Directed by Bobby Papatie
Canada  |  2010  |  4 min

Wapikoni Mobile is a motorized motion picture training and production studio that works with youth in First Nations communities of Quebec. Through filmmaking young people connect with themselves and the world.

Accompanied by the music of Bobby Papatie, elder, Mary Coon delivers a message of hope to the youth of Wemotaci

The Bear Dance

The Bear Dance

Directed by Marie-Christine Petiquay
Canada  |  2008  |  6 min

The spectacular annual powwow at Manawan. Gilles Moar once saw a bear dancing, and this inspired him to pass his culture on to his daughter and the young in his community.

The Small Pleasure

The Small Pleasure

Directed by Marie-Pier Ottawa (Atikamekw)
Canada  |  2010  |  3 min

Wapikoni Mobile is a motorized motion picture training and production studio that works with youth in First Nations communities of Quebec. Through filmmaking young people connect with themselves and the world.

The Small Pleasures is a poetic meditation on childhood and it’s small pleasures.

Two Scoops

Two Scoops

Directed by Jackie Traverse
Canada  |  2008  |  5 min

Anishinabe and multidisciplinary artist Jackie Traverse uses hand-drawn animation to punctuate a touching personal story about the 1960s’ “scoop” of Aboriginal children – an unofficial policy of the Government of Canada that saw thousands of Aboriginal children removed from their families and adopted into non-Aboriginal homes. The policy continued the legacy of culture loss and family disintegration that began with the earlier residential schools.

War Child

War Child

Directed by Caroline Monnet
Canada  |  2011  |  6 min

On a solitary portage between the barren wilderness and a desolate city, a young man reflects on his troubled past and hopeful future. Honest, thoughtful and personal narration illuminates a survivor’s state of mind that sees serenity, while a background drumbeat accelerates the pace of this starkly resilient black and white cinematic portrait