World Premiere
WaaPaKe is a story about resilience, love and transformation. Examined through an Indigenous lens, the stories of residential school Survivor-Warriors and their families offer an understanding of both intergenerational trauma and healing. We are taken to a studio set-up in front of a green screen. Through compassionate, candid conversations, Jules Koostatchin shares interviews with five individuals, family and friends, that all directly or indirectly experienced intergenerational trauma. They tell of their survival, and the impacts felt throughout families and generations. The word “Waapake“ in swampy Cree means “tomorrow” and it’s used to signify how they move forward in a good way and work towards healing with each other, within families, and within the community around them. Thematically it is a powerful, courageous, and vulnerable documentary. WaaPaKe reflects where we are in Truth and Reconciliation in Canada after the unmarked graves, and offers hopeful and determined perspectives looking to the future.
October 1 & 4: Q&A with director Jules Arita Koostachin & crew
Presented by
Series Media Partner
Community Partner
Canada
2023
Insights
In English and Cree with English subtitles
Depictions of Racism, Residential Schools, Sexual Language
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Shirley Vercruysse
Producer
Teri Snelgrove
Screenwriter
Jules Arita Koostachin
Cinematography
Michael Bourquin
Editor
Jessica Dymond
Original Music
Justin Delorme
Director
Photo by Karolina Turek
Jules Arita Koostachin
Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin (Attawapiskat) is an award-winning filmmaker, mother, and academic. Social justice themes emerge in her films, alongside bravery, healing, connection and humour. Jules honours her Cree-speaking grandparents who raised her, and her mother, a residential school Survivor/warrior. Jules is an alumni from Concordia’s Theatre program, including Toronto Metropolitan University’s Documentary Media masters program, receiving early recognition with an Award of Distinction and an Academic Gold Medal for her thesis documentary film, Remembering Inninimowin. Jules holds a Ph.D. in Indigenous documentary from UBC.
Filmography: Broken Angel (2023); Placenta (2012); Remembering Inninimowin (2010)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Outrageous!
Two misfits find love and support in this cult classic and landmark for Canadian queer cinema. Determined to retain her freedom after being treated for schizophrenia, Liza grows equally committed to seeing Robin realize his potential as a drag performer.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Vancouver Opera Presents: Moulin Rouge!
Paris has never been gayer than in this headlong karaoke culture crash set in a poptastic 19th century Montmartre, where Ewan McGregor composes The Sound of Music and falls over his heels for Nicole Kidman's courtesan, Satine.