Project Description

About

Although the film works as a stand-alone short film, it was original conceived as a special presentation piece at the 2014 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Since the festival was celebrating their 15th year they wanted to do something special as a dedication to “Storytellers”. From the 2014 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival program:
Experience cinema-based storytelling in a new way at this remarkable, not-to-be missed presentation.  In celebration of imagineNATIVE’s 15th anniversary, two pairs of artists – each comprising one author and one filmmaker – collaborated to create a “storyteller screening”: a screen-based video work that accompanies a live reading.  For each of the two presentations, the author will read a new short story written especially for this event as the filmmaker’s new video work plays simultaneously, creating a multimedia performance that transcends screen and stage. Legendary author, artist, and activist Maria Campbell shares a new story created in collaboration with Shane Belcourt, one of the leading filmmakers in Canadian Indigenous cinema. Their counterparts are Joseph Boyden, one of Canada’s true literary stars, who presents work with Terril Calder, a master of animation. Together these artists – each from a Metis or mixed culture – combine craft, transcend media and explore new territory to tell a story unlike any other.

Synopsis

Violence against Indigenous woman is something we’d all like to sweep under the rug … both in mainstream Canadian society and within Indigenous families ourselves.  It’s occurred for hundreds of years and is now ever present, and it is brutal and disgusting. Maria Campbell, an acclaimed Metis author from Saskatchewan, knows much about these sad realities in our communities.  In this work, Maria sets out to hold a mirror out for Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people to peer into the never-ending legacy of colonial violence.  In collaboration Shane Belcourt, the video is a series of heartbreaking vignettes, all wrapped around the imagery of a man in ceremony looking for hope and calling for the ancestors to help us all get back on the good road home.

Production Details

Written by Maria Campbell
Directed by Shane Belcourt
Produced by Michelle St. John
Co-Produced by Duane Murray
Cast – Maria Campbell (Elder) , Bruce Naokwegijig (Faster), Semiah Smith (Teen), Patti Shaughnessy (Mother), Ed Cooper (Truck Driver), Santee Smith (Wife), Wayne Neegan (Husband)
Production Design by David Hannan
Cinematography by James Klopko
Edit, Sound, Score by Jordan O’Connor
Hair, Make-Up, Wardrobe by Carolee Custus
Sound Recordist Nigel Irwin
Production Assistant Cole Alvis
Caterer Cailin Bator
Made for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Funding from The Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council
Run Time: 13 mins
Shooting Format: HD Digital Capture
Screening Format: Quicktime file or BluRay Disc; B&W and Colour; Stereo