imagineNATIVE Film Festival is the largest Indigenous film festival in the world. Filmmakers, producers, buyers and distributors come from all over to be a part of the week long festivities. Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to be the programming coordinator for the festival. To say my involvement in the 2008 festival was high would be a gross understatement.
What was a a gross understatement was my attendance this year. I had a grand vision of being able to go to as many screenings as possible this year and not work them, but write about them! Yes to write about them to share with anyone who came across it upon this blog. To celebrate the great achievements and hard work that these Indigenous filmmakers have put forth in sharing their craft.
Screenings by day, social events by night, I was going to do it all. And then reality hit, I am not a full-time blogger or freelance writer, I am a full-time student. I had to attend to more pressing deadlines at hand to be able to take in the event how I wanted. And so I went to two events from the jam-packed imagineNATIVE schedule.
"A Decade in Retrospect: Curated by Dana Claxton" was a lecture that took place on Friday afternoon that looked at thirteen Indigenous films made in the past 10 years that influenced and shaped Aboriginal screen culture. A beautiful pamplet of her lecture was commemorated by VTape and is sure to remain a collector's item by Indigenous cinema fans and filmmakers. I found the event interesting and interactive with the clips of the films, but had hoped for a more engaging discussion and less of a lecture (I do go to University and get enough traditional lectures). It was great to see who made it out to this event and who were the true imagineNATIVE film lovers though.
The last event I went to was "The Beat," which is the music event of the festival (and the least film related and more party related). This is the event to go to see and be seen for the local Native Toronto scene. Even if you don't do anything film festival related, you would go to this event. Musicians from all over Canada are always performing and it is the best place to have a good ol' raucous time. Truth be told, I was feeling a little tired and sick but wanted to make the effort to take in at least one more iN event. George Leach, Jason Burnstick, and Lucie Idlout performed and were entertaining the crowds. As per usual it was a great time although I did feel like it wasn't as packed with people as previous years (especially last years) had been.
Next year I hope to have the ability (read: no full-time job) so I can soak all of imagineNATIVE film festival up (workshops, lectures, and all). I am so thankful that such a creative hub exists for all Indigenous filmmakers, actors, and fans. Happy 10th Anniversary imagineNATIVE!
See Related Posts:
-Breaking Stereotypes (again)
Posts
2 comments: