2007 Archive
| Title | Athabasca | Edmonton |
|---|---|---|
| Finding Dawn "Dawn Crey, Ramona Wilson, Daleen Kay Bosse. These are just three of the estimated 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years. Directed by acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Walsh, Finding Dawn is a compelling documentary that puts a human face to this national tragedy. This is an epic journey into the dark heart of Native women's experience in Canada. From Vancouver's skid row, where more than 60 women are missing, we travel the "Highway of Tears" in northern British Columbia, and onward to Saskatoon, where the murders of Native women remain unresolved. Along the road to honour those who have passed, we uncover reason for hope. It lives in Native rights activists Professor Janice Acoose and Fay Blaney. It drives events such as the annual Memorial March in Vancouver and inspires communities all along the length of Highway 16 to come together to demand a change." | ||
| Jaedaaq to Return: The John Walker Story "Young Kwakwaka’wakw artist John Walkus Green journeys home to the village he was forcefully removed from as a child. This film documents John’s return and also investigates the BC government’s adoption policies, which had tragic consequences. It is often difficult for adoptees to come home after losing family ties, heritage and language. Torn between two cultures, they are often discriminated against by both. John Walkus was raised in Tsulquate, near Port Hardy. As a young child he was “adopted out” to a non-Native family. Even though his adoptive family tried to give him the love he needed, the experience left emotional scars. John passed through years of delinquency before returning to the home of his ancestors. Initially, he was rejected for being “white”, but John refused to give up his vision to be accepted by his own people. His story becomes a remarkable journey, as he “carves” his way home." | ||
| Killer's Paradise "Since 1999, more than two thousand women have been murdered in Guatemala, with the number escalating every year. Yet lawmakers and government officials just turn a blind eye. Powerful and uncompromising, Killer’s Paradise uncovers one of the most emotionally wrenching human rights abuses taking place, while exposing the impunity allowed by and inept judicial system. With its history of almost four decades of civil war, Guatemala is a troubled society, but it can also be seen as a microcosm of the pervasive violence and injustice against women that exists in the world today. No one knows who is behind these atrocious acts and nothing is being done to find the culprits. Cases are routinely closed and the murdered women dismissed as nobodies. But there are traces of hope: a grassroots human rights movement is emerging. Fuelled by frustration, anger, great sadness and loss, women and men like Norma Cruz, Maria Elena Paralta, and Jorge Velasquez are coming together for a common fight in the name of their daughters, wives, and sisters. With stunning realism, Killer’s Paradise documents their heartbreaking stories and gripping testimonies to the stark reality in Guatemala." | ||
| Place of the Boss UTSHIMASSITS "In the mid-sixties, the Mushuau Innu, one of the last hunter-gatherer peoples of North America, were forced to abandon their 6,000-year nomadic culture and settle in the village of Davis Inlet on the coast of Northern Labrador— a place the Innu named Utshimassits (Ooh-she-mah-seet), or the Place of the Boss. Their relocation resulted in physical dislocation, cultural collapse and widespread despair. This video weaves a profound sense of place through the use of archival footage of the breathtaking Labrador landscape juxtaposed against haunting present-day images of the dilapidated condition of Davis Inlet. First-person testimony from Elders, band leaders and youth allows the voices of the community to express their own rarely heard point of view. The result is a documentary that delves beyond the national headlines of substance abuse, suicide, and rural slum conditions to provide a profile of a people confronting the tragedy of their current circumstances by summoning the traditions, memories and culture of their proud past." | ||
| First Stories (v. 1) |
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