MOOSE FACTORY, Ontario – The 7th annual Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival will feature 35 films and will be screened in a multitude of venues within Moose Factory and Moosonee, Ontario from Feb. 17 – 21.
Continuing with its mandate to support the development of local and regional filmmakers, the Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival’s special screening of works by emerging youth filmmakers is scheduled during the Friday evening Shorts Program. The works are an outcome of a number of collective creation projects led by youth in 2007 and 2008. These works were in partnerships with Power Camp National, James Bay Eeyou School, Indigenous Culture and Media Innovations, Weengushk Film Institute in communities such as Moose Factory, M’Chigeeng, Wikwemikong, Chisasibi and Wemindji. Within this program, two animated shorts by local emerging artists, Gerry McComb III and Devin Rickard will be screened.
Each year the Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival creates a unique program screening works that resonate with the elders at the Moose Factory Elder’s Centre. This year’s presentation is in partnership with the Mushkegowuk Council and hosted by the Moose Cree Elders Program Feb. 19. Three shorts and one feature film will be screened. The shorts include: Cynthia Taylor’s “Truly Traditional,” a story of an elderly Cree woman’s 80 years of life dependent on the land; “One River, All Rivers” by Tom E. Lewis, an indigenous Australian homage to an elder’s message about protecting our rivers and, Kate Brascoupe’s “Tuscarora Corn: Ears of Our Forefathers,” an endearing documentary of the Rickard family. The evening’s feature presentation “The Last Walk” by Jean Guillaume Caplan, is a story of rediscovery and the flooding of ancestral lands along the Eastmain River.
Special film presentations of two works-in-progress will be screened during the festival. Shirley Cheechoo’s newest work-in-progress “Sweet Blood” (working title) is a co-presentation with the Moose Cree Health Services and Diabetes Support Group Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. Paul Rickard’s new work-in-progress the “Kidney Transplant Story,” is a co-presentation with Muskeg Media Inc. in partnership with the Weeneebayko Health Ahtuskaywin. This film documents the kidney transplantation process for two patients from the James Bay area. This screening takes place at the Weeneebayko General Hospital Feb. 19 at noon. Cheechoo and Rickard will be in attendance.
As part of this year’s program, the National Film Board of Canada presents two showcase presentations featuring “Club Native” by Tracey Deer and “Sacred Sundance” by Brian Francis. Deer’s “Club Native” is a deeply moving documentary looking at the pain, confusion and frustration suffered by many First Nations women struggling with their right to belong. In “Sacred Sundance,” Francis takes us on a journey that leads the Mi’kmaq to embrace a new tradition, sacred historically to indigenous nations across the plains of North America. “Club Native” will be screened Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. and “Sacred Sundance” Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. Filmmakers, Deer and Francis will be in attendance.
Friday evening’s feature presentation is the award winning film “Before Tomorrow.” Filmmakers Marie Helen Cousineau and Madeline Uvalu weave a story of a woman who demonstrates that human dignity is at the core of life when she is challenged by the survival of her grandson. This screening takes place at 9 p.m. and is a celebrated, co-presentation with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Festival.
The Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival is an artist and community run festival led by brothers Fred Rickard Jr. (artistic director) and Paul Rickard (co-founder/filmmaker). Audience members are mainly from the Moose Factory and Moosonee area. Many also travel by plane, by the Polar Bear Express train and/or along ice roads, from all over the south and from as far north as Attawapiskat.
Visit Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival online for free unlimited access to all screenings, events and workshops, for further details of screenings, visiting artists and festival activities. The festival is also on Facebook.
