More video now from the invitation-only artists gathering held on Day 3 (Oct. 22) of imagineNATIVE 2010, where we spoke with a Sami artist who made the trip to Toronto all the way from Sweden.
Per-Josef Idivuoma, Manager/Director of
idi Studios, interviewed just outside
L’Espresso Bar Mercurio, site of the reception
This afternoon on the festival’s third day, many of the 70+ artists in attendance at imagineNATIVE 2010 accepted an invitation to a private soirée sponsored by the Canada Media Fund at the lovely L’Espresso Bar Mercurio on Bloor St. W.
MEDIA INDIGENA was there, with these behind the scenes conversations:
Neil Diamond, director of REEL INJUN, played
‘gossip girl’ for us and shared the down-low on
who’s doing the what where with whom
at imagineNATIVE 2010.
Canada Media Fund’s Suzanne Keppler discussed
the Fund’s support of the Fest and recent
Aboriginal Program contributions to artists
as part of CMF’s ‘Convergent Stream.’
Rober de Jesús Guachetá:
The Work Goes On
19 min. | 2009 | Colombia
Directed by the Cineminga Collective
Screening at imagineNATIVE Friday Oct 22 @ 3 pm,
Al Green Theatre (Bloor at Spadina)
Spanish with English subtitles
MI Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)
—————— ◊ ——————
This movie opens with a young Indigenous boy explaining how he found his father murdered. His father, Rober de Jésus Guachetá, a Nasa leader in Cauca, southwest Colombia, was dedicated to education. He had helped found the Intercultural Knowledge School on his reservation of Honduras, which educates adults on topics such as Indigenous cosmovision, self-determination and human rights. Education is viewed as a form of cultural resistance.
Cauca is a historical and contemporary hotspot of Indigenous resistance and organizing. An influx of multinational companies (timber, hydro-electric and mining) has paralleled the increase of paramilitary activity and threats against Indigenous leaders in the region, especially since 2007.
The situation documented by this short film is one replayed out continuously in Colombia. In fact, just one week ago on Oct. 15, another Indigenous leader, Rodolfo Aricate Amaya, was murdered in the same department (or state) of Cauca.
According to the National Indigenous Organization in Colombia (ONIC), there have been more than 100 assassinations of Indigenous people in the country this year alone. Few if any murders are solved or perpetrators convicted.
A snapshot of a premeditated death of an Indigenous leader, and about his community telling the story, The Work Goes On is a testament to on-going political violence and the violation of Indigenous rights in Colombia.
It is vital to pay homage to the memory of all the Rober Guachetás of the world, and to disseminate information about the Indigenous struggle in Colombia in particular. The video comes full circle when it closes with another heartbreaking comment from the late Rober’s son, explaining with inspiring composure how his father’s work must continue.
For its capturing the urgency of this topic, I give this documentary 5 out of 5 stars.
Tamara Dionne Stout is a Masters student in the MA program in Aboriginal Governance at the University of Winnipeg, and has been a resident of Bogota, Colombia for many years.
El Grito de la Selva
(Cry of the Forest)
97 min. | 2008 | Bolivia
Directed by Nicolas Ipamo & Alejandro Noza
Screening at imagineNATIVE Friday Oct 22 @ 1pm,
Al Green Theatre (Bloor at Spadina)
Spanish with English subtitles
MI Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)
—————— ◊ ——————
Touted as Bolivia’s first Indigenous feature film, El Grito de la Selva is very much a story told by and for the Indigenous peoples of the southern Americas. That said, there are parallels to be drawn to Aboriginal struggles in the north.
Of course, as a groundbreaking movie, El Grito is as significant for the way it was made as for its narrative style and substance. Set in a rural village in the forests of the Beni region, all of the actors are drawn from the actual areas depicted, and the plot is informed by all-too-real events.
Over roughly the first third of the movie, we learn the back-story of Mercedes, a distraught and disheveled woman whose village had been burned to the ground by logging company thugs. After days and miles of walking alone, she comes upon a new community, which welcomes her with open arms.
In time, Mercedes embraces her new home, but resists questions about her painful past. As fate would have it, though, the logging company eventually makes its way to her adopted village, selling the benefits of clearcutting the surrounding forest — an offer that proves tempting for some villagers. Unwilling to see a repeat of previous events, Mercedes finds the courage to speak out, a courage that eventually becomes contagious.
As noted earlier, none of the performers are professional actors, but the director and coalition of producers behind El Grito clearly share their passion for restoring self-determination and dignity to Indigenous peoples of the Amazon through story. I look forward to further growth in cinematic expression among such peoples in this part of the world.
Gievn that this is Greenland’s first-ever feature-length film, the fact it’s also Inuit-produced makes it that much more historic.
Tonight at the Al Green Theatre, the principal film screening venue for imagineNATIVE, moviegoers were treated to the “breathtaking and luminous” work Nuummioq.
Directed by Otto Rosing and Torben Bech, the film was produced by Mikisoq H. Lynge, and it was Lynge who attended the Thursday Oct. 21 evening screening. Shortly after taking a battery of questions from an enthusiastic audience about Nuummioq, Lynge was good enough to answer some from MEDIA INDIGENA.
