Just outside the city of Montreal lies the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve, home
to the famed Kateri Tekakwitha (Beatified “Lily of the Mohawks”). Kateri
Hall served as host to a professional filmmaking workshop, film screenings
and a meet-and-greet with three young local filmmakers.
Catherine Martin, Mi’gmaq, Greg Coyes, Metis, and Annie Frazier Henry,
Blackfoot/Sioux were the workshop facilitators. The workshop dealt
specifically with ways to faithfully adapt First Nations’ tales and legends
for the screen. Over three days they addressed questions inculding “How do
you transpose oral tradition into audiovisual media?”, “How do you preserve
the original message but still respect tradition?” and “What is and isn’t
appropriate for the general public?”
Several film screenings were held at Kateri Hall as well as the main
screening location at the NFB building downtown. It was LandInSights’ wish
to bring part of the First Peoples’ Festival closer to the people on the
reserves.
On June 18 a special screening of three short films directed and produced
by local filmmakers took place. The evening had a hilarious start with the
showing of Joseph Tekaronike Lazare’s “Might of the Starchaser.” The
23-minute claymation film was a tonguein-cheek parody with a witty script
that was not afraid to make fun of itself. Lazare said he made the film for
about $3,000. The animation and special effects were all the more enjoyable
for their overt simplicity.
The second film of the evening toned the mood down to somber. “Neutral” by
Mohawk director and musician Daybi, was a 24-minute film shot on the
Kahnawake Reserve and Montreal. The story follows a young Mohawk who left
the streets of the city to move into a home on the reserve that he had
inherited. The “hero” of this dark tale meets his end without redemption
but the audience is left with many subjects to contemplate.
Daybi said he made the entire film for around $1,000 and when filming began
he didn’t even have a script. “I want people to look at my films and say
‘that is a good film,’ not ‘that is a good Aboriginal film,’” said Daybi.
Several comments were made about how Native and non-Native filmmakers alike
seem to be afraid to villanize a Native on film because they were afraid to
perpetuate a negative stereotype.
Daybi, who is also a member of the hip hop group Slangblossom with Arbor
Records, showed the group’s first video for their song “Possibly”, where a
Native man wallows in alcoholism and only at the very end gives a hint that
he might find a way out of his misery. The group’s second video will be
released soon.
The highly-polished film “From Cherry English” by a relatively veteran
filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, Mi’gmaq, capped off the screening. This “big
budget” film cost approximately $40,000 and used a crew of 50 people to
complete the nine-minute film. The movie was made in only a couple of
months in response to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s call for
entries.
“To have a festival here on the reserve is amazing. We are taking back our
images,” said Barnaby.
“From Cherry English” deals with an urban Mi’gmaq who hallucinates that his
tongue rips itself out of his mouth because he never learned how to speak
his language. His grandmother’s spirit helps him to overcome his shame by
sewing his tongue back in while his grandfather’s spirit mocks him about
drinking alcohol.
The overwhelming feeling in the room was that Native filmmakers need to be
the ones controlling the camera because only they can accurately portray
their own reality. “[We need to] try to make people think about the images
they are seeing,” said Barnaby. “Where are the cameras when something
positive is happening?”
These First Nations’ directors hoped that someday they would be recognized
for their hard work and realism, not for their heritage. “We are Native by
default, not design,” said Barnaby. “One day I saw a review and it was the
first time I had seen a Native director compaired to a non-Native one.
“Man that made me proud. All of a sudden [our work] was no longer the
‘Special Olympics’ of film.”
