3 Shorts Films about 3 Unique Indigenous Experiences
Friday, October 25th, 2019 (ImagiNATIVE Film Festival) - I went to the ImagiNATIVE film festival in Toronto, where a total of 3 films were shown and one piece of performance art. Here is what I thought and learned about of them.
The first film called "Loon Lake" was about the Cree community in Loon Lake, and was originally made completely in Cree in 1968 making it the first film to be made completely in Cree, but was later adapted y members of the community to have English subtitles. The film itself talked about how the community at Loon Lake, and specifically the elders there and how hard it is as you get older to support yourself and your family, when you rights are frequently being declined to you. It talked about how their requests for assistance were being declined, how they were being declined social security pay. I thought it was very interesting and shocking how much prejudice is still held against the first nations even in Canada, I also found it awesome how help full this film was to the community "Loon Lake" and how instrumental it was in bringing the attention to "Loon Lake" making their community into a reservation.
The second film was a music video about the First Nations in Brazil. Personally I did not find it as great as the first film but it was still kind of interesting to see what was happening in different parts of the world. I thought that it because it was a music video it was not able to portray as much information as the first film "Loon Lake". I found that it was much more emotional than the first film and a lot less factual. It was very angry and I understand that what is happening in Brazil is horrible but I don't think more anger and violence is going to solve the problem. Overall I thought the second film was ok it showed us a little about what was happening in Brazil but it did not really work to solve the problem more to just vent frustration.
The third film was a performance piece and a film, it was created by who was also queer and bipolar. it was a very unique film about this person's life. Which I believed did not really focus on the problems that the indigenous are facing but more so the problems that she as an individual was facing.
Overall I found this festival to be really great and I plan to view many more films in the future, go to many more events and festivals, and just get more involved in the community in general.