11.13.24 Indigenous Film
Wednesday, Nov. 13
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Behind Every Image, a Story, director Jean-François Fontaine. Thousands of old photographs of indigenous people are housed in the drawers of archives centers throughout Canada. Men, women and children, of whom we know neither the name, nor the origin, nor the life. This goal of this documentary was to go further than the image, to meet the descendants of these individuals to finally name them – with photography as a link between people, history and culture. This project aims to be a portrait of Canadian society and to document in its own way an important moment of in Canadian history – reconciliation. (Les Films Sanajik, 2023, 52 min.).
Beyond Being Silenced: Gyaa Isdlaa, director Charles Wilkinson. World famous Haida artist Robert Davidson was born in Hydaburg, Alaska at a time when the traditional law-giving social potlatch ceremony had been outlawed by governments seeking to prevent indigenous inhabitants from asserting title to their ancestral lands. Years later, the ban was lifted, but the damage had been done to younger generations of Haida and their connection to their heritage. Then in 1969, a young Davidson carved a totem pole for the village of Masset in Haida Gwaii, sparking a rebirth of coastal indigenous culture. Fifty years later, Davidson, along with other indigenous artists, began recreating tribal crests – totems which are fundament to a clan’s identity - gifting them to his brother clans at a special potlatch ceremony. (Bullfrog Films, 2023, 23 min.).