Vic Theatre hosting film festival to showcase Indigenous perspectives and culture

Beginning next Friday, July 17th, Victoria Film Festival (VFF) is hosting a celebration of Indigenous film and stories at downtown’s Vic Theatre. 

The festival is called F1RST: A Celebration of Indigenous Film, and will feature six films made by Indigenous creators, as well as two talks on acting, writing, directing and producing films. 

This year marks the third incarnation of F1RST, which began as a platform to allow these films to be seen as a shared experience.   

Organizers say the festival’s goal is to share Indigenous history, culture and experiences through films created from Indigenous perspectives and to encourage Indigenous creators. 

The featured films in this year’s F1RST festival will be:

• təm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) – Friday, July 17th at 7 p.m.: A documentary showing the ongoing conversation between the Tla’amin Nation and the city commonly known as Powell River, which derives its name from Israel Wood Powell, a government official whose policies helped establish residential schools, criminalize cultural practices and remove Tla’amin from its home at tiskʷət. 

• Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising – Saturday, July 18th at 12:30 p.m.: A film that tells the little-known story of how in 1974, Anishinaabe youth staged one of the first land-back occupations in Canadian history in Kenora, Ontario.   

• The Business of Fancydancing – Saturday, July 18th at 4:15 p.m.: A film that follows a successful, gay Native American poet from Spokane who confronts his past when he returns to his childhood home on the reservation to attend the funeral of a dear friend. 

• A Cree Approach – Saturday, July 18th at 7 p.m.: A documentary that follows Tristin Greyeyes’ journey towards understanding why Cree isn’t her first language, through the story of her late grandmother, Freda Ahenakew. 

• Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific – Sunday, July 19th at 3 p.m.: A documentary-animation hybrid drawing from oral traditions, recorded history and community memory.  

• Aki – Sunday, July 19th at 5:15 p.m.: An artistic visual art documentary film that is set in director Darlene Naponse’s home community in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Ontario (formerly known as Whitefish Lake). 

Every film except for Aki will conclude with a Q&A session with the projects’ filmmakers.

Additionally, there will be two talks by Indigenous filmmakers associated with these films. 

The ‘On Acting, Writing and Directing’ talk will feature writer/directors Sherman Alexi and Evan Adams, who worked on The Business of Fancydancing and təm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) respectively. The ‘Producing 101’ talk will feature director/producer Barbra Todd Hagar. 

Mark Hoyne, VFF program manager told Victoria Buzz that five of the six films were curated for this festival by Akira Iahtail, who hails from amiskwaciwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton. 

“Akira was instrumental in helping us to find these stories that need a platform,” said Hoyne. 

The films chosen also feature plenty of Vancouver Island and coastal BC talent. Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific was directed by Port Alberni-based, Cree-Métis filmmaker Tanner Zurkoski, təm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) is about the current name of Powell River, filmmakers Evan Adams and Eileen Francis are from Tla’amin Nation, located on the Sunshine Coast and A Cree Approach is made by now Vancouver-based filmmaker Tristin Greyeyes. 

“We hope that attendees leave the theatre with a greater appreciation of Indigenous creators,” said Hoyne. 

“We want to support cultural exchange and dialogue.”

Catch one, some or all of these films and talks at this year’s edition of F1RST: A Celebration of Indigenous Film. 

Tickets are available online via VFF’s website.