From paper and products back to pristine forest. A reverse process of a material being too often considered a natural resource.
NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind)
In 1938, having left her Nunavut home with her mother Kumaa’naaq, young Marguerite must negotiate the unspoken pressures of a new life in the South. When an extraordinary letter arrives from home, Marguerite discovers what’s really expected of her. Based on a true story.
Awards:
2024 – Nominated for Social Impact Award, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, Vancouver Short Film Festival
2024 – Best Indigenous Film, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, Arizona International Film Festival, Tucson, AZ
2024 – Outstanding Short Narrative Film, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, FAVA Festival
2024 – Outstanding Cinematography, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, FAVA Festival
2024 – Outstanding Production Design, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, FAVA Festival
2024 – Outstanding Performance (Ensemble Cast), NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, FAVA Festival
2024 – Nominated for Best Narrative Short Film and Best Actress (Brenda Amaklak Putulik), NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, Madrid Film Awards, Spain
2023 – EDA Award for Best Short Directed by a Woman, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Whistler Film Festival
2023 – Best Short Live Action Fiction, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, imagineNATIVE Film Festival
2023 – Official Nomination to 2025 Academy Awards, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, imagineNATIVE Film Festival
In a Name (raw footage)
In a Name (in progress)
16mm experimental animated documentary. Hand-processed, raw camera footage.
In a Name is a 16mm animated stop motion documentary portrait that details the life of Kiviaq, who changed the landscape for Inuit in Canada. Kiviaq was a very important Inuk. He was a handsome man and he lived many lives. He was born in 1936 on a trap line near Igluligaarjuk in what is now Nunavut. In a colonial taking, he was brought to live in the south by an RCMP officer. He was a Golden Gloves boxing champion, he was the world’s first Inuk lawyer, and he was the only Inuk who was ever an Eskimo (he played for the Edmonton Eskimos). He was a call-in talk radio personality, a skilled horseman, an elected city Alderman and he even ran for Mayor. He was also a shit disturber. He fought for young offenders and Indigenous people of all kinds to be treated fairly in a court of law. He fought the provincial government for the right to reclaim his original singular Inuk name, Kiviaq. He fought the federal government for Inuit to be defined in law in an epic court battle that spanned 15 years. He fought and eventually lost the fight with cancer and did it all with an incredible sense of humour.
Using Kiviaq’s vast personal collection, this animated portrait will construct a record, a document, an archive of his storied life, both the dominant narratives and the erased histories. The film centres on the practice of naming in Inuit culture and Kiviaq’s landmark legal challenge to reclaim his singular Inuk name. For Inuit, naming is very important. Names connects a person to their atiapik or namesake, and names are passed down in community without gender. When Kiviaq was taken from his home in 1936, his name was taken too. His story is important and parallels many of the other attempts of the dominant culture to suppress Inuit cultural identity.
Worth More Standing
Worth More Standing (expanded cinema performance) (documentation from August 2022)
36 -45 mins / 16mm x 6 projectors expanded cinema performance / 2022 – present
A looping 16mm performance exploring the framework of tree/human relationships on unceded Pacheedaht territory at Fairy Creek. A site of civil disobedience rivalling the biggest and longest in Canadian history, it is also a place of recognition, passion and dedication for the more-than-human beings with whom we share the planet. From the seeming silence of these great giants to the invented importance of our daily lives, this performance explores the lines of the forest, the front lines and the lines we cross in complicity. Hi-contrast images are hand-processed, optically printed, contact printed and altered, creating a portrait of this landscape and it’s employ at the hands of humans. Stitching together original imagery of the old growth forest and land defenders, horizontal and vertical planes/plains shift across the width of the widescreen composition, blurring boundaries between space and sight. Features a live sonic collaboration by Peter Bussigel.
Made in a collaborative darkroom space, Worth More Standing is a live cinema performance that embraces and embodies the ethics and the foundation of artist-run film labs and collectives. By taking media and machines into our own hands and making them accessible, we mean to challenge the ways that media is produced and consumed, questioning who is being heard and what voices are being privileged.
Performances:
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Spotlight on Canadian Film Labs (commission, by invitation) – May 2022
DIM Cinema, Vancouver Cinematheque 50th Anniversary (by invitation) – August 2022
OK LÀ Festival, Montreal, QC (by invitation) – March 2023
FMSAC Conference, Congress, Archive/Counter Archive (by invitation) – May 2023