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
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
Cowboy Bebop + The Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band
Here's the double whammy of the season: The Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band (led by Steven Zhu) paired with a screening of the thrilling 2001 Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.
Image: Allan Parker @adp.life
John Coltrane's Blue World: The Mike Allen Trio + Le chat dans le sac
Join us as we celebrate the 98th birthday of John Coltrane and the 60th Anniversary of the French Canadian new wave classic which he scored. Coltrane's music for the film was only released two years ago, as the album Blue World.
The Night of the Hunter
One of the strangest and most beguiling movies you'll ever see, from a poetic, nightmarish novel by Davis Grubb, a fable about two children fleeing from a psychotic evangelical preacher (Robert Mitchum). Charles Laughton's only film as director.
The Battle of Algiers
French Colonel Mathieu hunts for Algerian resistance leader Ali la Pointe in Pontecorvo's classic, which draws the battle lines between colonialists and Arab insurrectionists in a pulsating, "fly-on-the-wall" documentary style.
