Drawing Wisdom & Hello Cool World are happy to support their very own, Rylan Friday, Project Manager and Vice-President of The Indigenous International Film Festival during its inaugural year, which will feature a variety of screenings and events at The Vancity Theatre on November 23rd and 24th, 2018. Its program is a celebration of Indigenous culture and heritage in screen-based media, and features standout works by Indigenous creators from Australia, Canada, Colombia, and The United States.
Four feature films are on the slate, including three British Columbia premiere screenings: From Australia, Adrian Russell Wills’ Black Divaz, a sassy, intimate portrait of what it means to be Miss First Nation – a behind the scenes look at the lives of the contestants of the first Indigenous Drag Queen pageant in Sydney.
From Native Hawaii, Ciara Leina’ala Lacy’s Out of State, the story of two native Hawaiians shipped thousands of miles to a private prison in the Arizona Desert, where they discover their Indigenous traditions from a fellow inmate serving a life sentence
From Australia, Larissa Behrendt’s After the Apology, following four aboriginal grandmothers who attempt to challenge the system and government policies to bring their grandchildren home after having been taken into state care under questionable circumstances.
From Canada, Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown’s Edge of The Knife is a 19th Century period piece scripted and shot in two dialects of the endangered Haida language. It is the tale of Adiits’ii, a man plagued by guilt after a tragedy at sea who retreats into the wild and transforms into Gaagiixiid/Gaagiid, the Haida Wildman.
The Festival will also be offering three panel discussions which are free and open to the public. The following panels will be: Funding and Financing for Indigenous Filmmakers, join Creative BC, the National Film Board of Canada and Telus Storyhive as they have an in-depth discussion on how emerging and established Indigenous filmmakers can get funding for their projects. 10:30 am, Friday November 23rd,2018 and the Vancity Theatre
The next discussion will be lead by Jesse Wente, Ojibwe Broadcaster, Tim Harjo, Harvard Lawyer and Producer, Barbara Hagar will be leading the Indigenous Authorship and Authenticity Panel. The objective is to create an open dialogue between Indigenous and non-indigenous filmmakers and producers over the ownership of First Nations oriented stories and what can be done for up and coming filmmakers to maintain their traditional or authentic narrative.
Renowned First Nations Producers, Tamara Bell & Barbara Hager with the Revenant’s Grace Dove will be leading the Indigenous Film Management Master Class at 10:30am on Saturday November 24th. The class dissects how Indigenous film management styles differ from Settler or Hollywood standard protocols by looking at traditional aspects being brought in and how an Aboriginal film set has the community aspect. Tickets, showtimes and registration for panels can be found on www.indigenousinternationalfilmfestival.com
