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Home » News » Indigenous Film Screening and Discussion with Filmmakers, April 2–9

Indigenous Film Screening and Discussion with Filmmakers, April 2–9

Published March 25, 2021

The Museum of Fine Arts and the Art History MCHS program will host a weeklong screening of three Indigenous short films April 1–9, and a discussion on April 8 with Dr. Kristin Dowell and two of the filmmakers. The screening and discussion are all free, virtual, and open to the public via a registration link.

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From April 1 through April 9, three Indigenous films will be open to viewers: Cedar Tree of Life, directed by Odessa Shuquaya (Kluane First Nation), ?E?anx: The Cave, directed by Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot’in), and Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes), directed by Amanda Strong (Michif). The films will be available to watch asynchronously, and viewers will receive instructions following registration.

On April 8, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. EST, viewers can join Dr. Dowell for a conversation with two of the filmmakers. Odessa Shuquaya (Kluane First Nation) and Amanda Strong (Michif) will discuss their work and film practice. ASL interpretation will be provided. Dowell is a settler scholar who has dedicated twenty years to amplifying the work on Indigenous filmmakers and artists. Learn more about Dowell’s research and watch all three film trailers here.

 

Odessa Shuquaya is an award-winning filmmaker whose first documentary short, Cedar Tree of Life, follows three indigenous women from the West Coast as they explore their relationship with the sacred material, Cedar bark. Cedar Tree of Life was produced by Sha Sikwan Productions Inc. as part of the National Screen Institutes’s IndigiDocs Program, with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, CBC Documentary Channel, Creative BC, and the National Film Board of Canada.

Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot’in) is an award-winning director who creates experimental film that explores land and language, including ?E?anx: The Cave, which was an official selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. ?E?anx: The Cave is inspired by Haig-Brown’s great-uncle’s telling of a Tsilhqot’in tale in which a bear hunter on horseback accidentally discovers a portal to the afterlife.

Amanda Strong (Michif) is a director, producer, and owner of Spotted Fawn Productions, an Indigenous-led production company that focuses on community-driven and collaborative-based illustration, stop motion, 2D, 3D, and virtual reality animations. 2018’s Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) follows Biidaaban, a young Indigenous gender-fluid person, and Sabe, a Sasquatch shapeshifter, set out to harvest sap from Sugar Maples, a timeless Indigenous practice. Biidaaban continues the work of their ancestors, finding connection through Ghost Caribou and Ghost Wolf, figures only Biidaaban can see.
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