Join us for an intimate dialogue between legendary Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin and Michif/Métis Artist Amanda Strong, rising star in film and animation, as they discuss their artistic practices, the importance of intergenerational connection, and story telling. Centered around the screening of their latest works, the conversation between these two powerful cinematic voices will discuss the joys and challenges of making film for youth.
This Talk will feature a sneak peek of Alanis Obomsawin’s latest short film My Friend the Green Horse. Often feeling lost and alone, the young Alanis found solace and companionship in the Animal World. Told with joyfulness and imbued with the spirit of happy childhood memories, My Friend the Green Horse offers rare insight into the early life of one of the world’s great documentary directors through a beautiful blend of live-action footage and stop-motion animation.
Amanda Strong’s animated short Inkwo: For When the Starving Return is the story of Dove, a young, enigmatic, gender-shifting warrior, who discovers the gifts and burdens of their Inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters. Dove’s courage, resilience and alliance with the Earth culminates in a battle against these flesh-consuming creatures, who become stronger with each body and soul they devour.
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Oct 5
2:00 pm
VIFF Centre, Vancity Theatre
Open to youth!
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Guests
Alanis Obomsawin
One of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, Alanis Obomsawin came to cinema from performance and storytelling. Hired by the NFB as a consultant in 1967, she has created an extraordinary body of work—50 films and counting—including landmark documentaries like Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). The Abenaki director has received numerous international honours and her work was showcased in a 2008 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “My main interest all my life has been education,” says Obomsawin, “because that’s where you develop yourself, where you learn to hate, or to love.”
Bush Lady is the only recording ever made by Alanis Obomsawin, who began her artistic career as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s. Amidst her burgeoning film career, Bush Lady was born of sessions sponsored by CBC Radio in 1984. Unsatisfied with these recordings, Obomsawin reclaimed the master tapes, remade the album, and issued it on her own private press in 1988. This unique and profound record had been out of print and gaining cult status ever since, until Constellation Records reissued a newly remastered version of the album in 2018.
Amanda Strong
Amanda Strong is a Michif/Métis artist, writer, producer, director, filmmaker and mother. As the owner and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc., her collaborative creations serve to amplify Indigenous storytelling and ideologies. Strong’s work has received Canadian Screen Award and Emmy nominations, and her films—which include Biidaaban (2018) and Four Faces of the Moon (2016) —have been shown worldwide at venues such as TIFF, the Cannes film market, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the American Museum of Natural History.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
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.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Intimate Moments: Short Films by Brendan Prost
Vignettes of loneliness, desire and fleeting connection, immerse yourself in the short, bittersweet films of Brendan Prost — who will also be filming proceedings for potential inclusion in his self-reflexive doc, The Performance of a Lifetime.
Winter Kept Us Warm
Often described as the first LGBTQ+ film ever to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, David Secter's lovingly observed portrait of a burgeoning queer romance came at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the country