2pm | NFB Pacific Region Theatre | Free for Children
Lil Bear Paws Program/Kids day

Wapos Bay: Long Good Byes
Trailer

2011, Canada, 74 min,
Director: Dennis and Melanie Jackson

The colourful cast of Wapos Bay makes the jump to the big screen! But everything is not well in this idyllic northern community. After a lifetime of happy memories living in Wapos Bay, Talon and Raven discover their dad has accepted a job in the big city. Faced with the reality of moving away, the two siblings react in different ways. For Talon, the news sends him on a journey of self-discovery as he sets out to accomplish his “bucket list” of things he’s always wanted to accomplish with his friends. Raven, on the other hand, is determined to keep her family in Wapos Bay, even if it means getting her dad elected as the new Chief … without his knowing. A feel-good film for all ages, Wapos Bay: Long Goodbyes is a tale of family, community and love, featuring the voice talents of Lorne Cardinal, Andrea Menard and Gordon Tootoosis.
Based in Saskatoon, Dennis Jackson (Cree/Saulteaux) began his career in elementary school watching 16mm prints of animated Indigenous creation stories. Together with his wife and creative partner, Melanie Jackson (Métis/Saulteaux), he founded Dark Thunder Producers and created Wapos Bay, the award-winning animated TV series. The series won four Gemini Awards, Canada’s highest honour in television, and became a landmark of Indigenous animation. For Long Goodbyes, Dennis served as director, writer and producer, with Melanie as producer and writer.
www.waposbay.com

Tansi Nehiyawetan: Pow Wow Episode

Tansi! Nehiyawetan invites children to learn Cree with Kai, Kayla and Auntie Josephine through kinetic games, absorbing stories, compelling songs and dynamic adventures. Join Kai and Kayla as they find out about Cree culture and language while they go on learning adventures in the colourful city of Vancouver.

Brocket Zombie
2011, Canada.
Directed by Cowboy Smithx

A short zombie adventure story, created by children aged 6-14 from the Piikani Youth Centre in Southern Alberta, as part of the Eccentricus Imagery: Essential Media Arts Tour. Two young aspiring rockers/air guitar specialists encounter a group of killer zombies in the small town of Brocket. With the help of a zombie hunter and a damsel in distress, the Rocker boys find the source of Zombie invasion and try to end their reign of terror.

Cryrock

2010, Canada, 28:43min
Director Banchi Hanuse

Less than fifteen Nuxalk language speakers and storytellers remain in Bella Coola, British Columbia. One of these elders is the filmmaker’s 80-year-old grandmother. In a technologically obsessed century, it would seem easier to record Nuxalk stories for future generations, but the filmmaker resists. Instead, she asks whether an electronic recording can capture the true meaning and value of these oral traditions. More importantly, can it be considered cultural knowledge?

Cry Rock examines how Nuxalk stories are more than mere words. With the passing of an elder, an invaluable link to a treasure of knowledge and experience reflecting the Nuxalk world view is lost. As the filmmaker struggles with the decision, a spine tingling story about the Cry Rock in the bend of the Atnarko River, nestled in the Bella Coola Valley, is retold by Clyde Tallio, a young Nuxalk man.

Immersive and revealing, the documentary blends interviews set against the wild beauty of the Bella Coola Valley with vivid watercolour animation. Cry Rock illuminates the intersection of Nuxalk history, place and spirit that are at the heart of an oral storytelling tradition.

Slay Dogs
Director :z:kwakwee baker:

Canada sends all its armed forces to Afghanistan, leaving its lands undefended. heeding the cry of the elders, First Nation warriors band together and take over half the country; from the Rockey Mountains to the Manitoba Saskatchewan borders, becomes New Native Territory, and becomes much like the old wiled west. We pick up the story where a band of self proclaimed run-o-the-mill warriors set out to terminate a couple of ruff-n-tuff cowboys in a road house saloon, on the outskirts of town. This star studded short, is filled with hidden messages and visual metaphors, providing a darker glimpse of what might happen in a lawless land claim.

Higher ground

by Karen Bardach

A young First Nations woman, Stakaya, 18, begins having strange, recurring dreams, which make her wonder if she is losing her mind. Her grades begin to slip and her friends start to wonder if she is okay. Her father, Jacob, worries about her when he finds out she dreams of being chased by a black wolf.

When the black wolf chases Stakaya into the darkness in a dream, she asks her father what will happen if she gets lost in the darkness. Jacob tells her “You are named after the wolf, it will give you strength.” So Stakaya decides to confront the black wolf in her dream. When she makes a stand against the black wolf, her spirit animal, the white wolf arrives and scares the black wolf away. The white wolf leads her to the spirit of her great, great grandfather, who offers her an eagle feather. The moment she accepts the eagle feather her Native spirituality opens up. The black wolf symbolizes Stakaya’s dark nature, while the white wolf symbolizes the light. The next morning, Stakaya realizes Komonake has followed her into her waking life. He tells Stakaya her role in life is to help others. Komonake explains he is there to teach her how to save people from fatal accidents and thus prevent them from dying “before it is their time.” Thus preventing a chain reaction of pain and suffering.

Indigenous Connections to the Land

Alannah Young Leon’s Maters research focused on local Indigenous Elders who have worked with the UBC First Nations House of Learning and discussed “how does culture inform Indigenous Leadership?” In her PhD work with UBC Faculty of Education, she is working with her own Elders “from home” the Peguis & Opaskwayak nations.  Her research will discuss how Indigenous Elders teach about reclaiming our relationships with lands and responds to the call for peoples to wake up from the colonial sleep induced hypnosis and to get going on operationaizing our own relational genealogies, stories and principles.

Francine Burning belongs to the Kenieke’haka (Mohawk: People of the Flint) Nation of the Rotinoshonni (Iroquois Confederacy) – Turtle Clan. Her home community is the Six Nations of the Grand River Indian Reserve in Southern Ontario. She is currently in her second year of her Master of Arts degree in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Program at UBC and also works as a curriculum developer for the Institute for Aboriginal Health.  She is also a single mother the three Kenieke’haka girls age 15, 13, & 11.

Larry Grant is from xwmuthkwey’um  (Musqueam) and is a sessional instructor in the First Nations language program at UBC, where he teaches H@n’q’@min’@m’ language. He is current the First nations House of Learning (FNHL) Elder in Residence and provides guidance and teaches protocols to UBC FNHL community.
He is a former band counsellor, a grandfather, and a sXwayxw@y big house dancer. Larry Grant, born and raised in Musqueam traditional territory by a traditional hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam family.

Norma Rose Point/Papep is from Thompson River, Seabird Island and xwmuthkwey’um Musqueam and has worked for the Musqueam education committee since 1965 and has worked for the VSB and numerous community health organizations in Vancouver. She is the Elder in Residence for post-secondary institutions at the UBC First Nations House of Learning (FNHL), British Columbia’s Institute for Technology (BCIT). Rose is a grandmother,  a traditional knowledge holder on many topics and was a foster mother, a post-secondary student.

Two Indians Talking
Trailer

2009, Canada 87min
Director: Sara McIntyre
Producer: Kiss Dust Pictures

Two Indians Talking is a comedic drama about the conflicting opinions of two First Nations men as they prepare to set up a roadblock. Each man wants fiercely to do the right thing, but struggles with the question, “When you do something for the right reasons, does that make it the right thing to do?”
ADAM (Justin Rain) is a university-educated Native of the Seventh Generation, raised to believe that knowledge is the Indian’s best tool for survival. NATHAN (Nathaniel Arcand) is a high school dropout whose dreams have been consistently crushed in his endurance of the past 20 years.
On the eve of their nation’s roadblock, the cousins prepare for the impending battle in an empty community centre that they paint with heartfelt conversation and humorous debate about life, culture, identity, women, literature, dreams, politics, education, poverty, and about hope for the future — if any.
www.kissdustpictures.com