TELLING THEIR STORIES
Five-day festival of Indigenous film, art, music begins Aug. 9
About six years ago, Howard Adler and Christopher Wong stumbled upon a Bollywood film festival at Library and Archives Canada as they were coming back from Victoria Island where they practised Objibwe language every Sunday. It got them thinking — there weren't any Indigenous film festivals in Ottawa, and they decided it was time to change that.
“One of the words for ( Victoria) Island and that place is Asinabka. That means ‘place of glaring rocks' or the ‘rocks that reflect light.' Chris and I — we're both Anishinaabe, we're not Algonquin — but we wanted to make sure that we're acknowledging the territory that we're on,” said Adler, 36.
“Our inspiration for the festival came from that place. Every year (since) we've started the festival with an outdoor screening there,” said Adler, who also works at SAW Gallery.
Asinabka Film and Media Arts Festival is now in its sixth year. Kicking off next Wednesday, Aug. 9, and running until Aug. 13, the five-day event is a celebration of Indigenous film, media, music and culture in Canada and from across the world.
Its screenings and shows will take place at a range of venues across Ottawa. This year, the festival will be present more than 60 films and art shows and for the first time will have a music series.
Creating the festival from scratch was not an easy feat but both Adler and Wong have backgrounds in film.
“I think it's important for Indigenous artists to have a space to show their work,” Adler said, “A lot of the films that we screen are premieres — a lot of them don't necessarily get shown at other festivals.”
Adler said that although some festivals and organizations are making efforts to include Indigenous artists and voices, there is still a need for a festival dedicated to showcasing Indigenous artists' work.
“There's a lot of films and artwork about Indigenous people that aren't made by them. That's not always the best source of information. I think showcasing work and stories by Indigenous people themselves is really important — you're just going to get a more realistic perspective on things.”
Asinabka will also be screening films by Indigenous people from different parts of the world, such as Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe and Central America.
“This is not only about Indigenous people telling their own stories. It's also just amazing and well-told stories. It's some of the best filmmaking you'll ever see,” Adler said.
“My generation is probably the first generation that didn't attend residential schools, so people are just starting, in Canada anyway, Indigenous people are starting to reclaim their own voice and their own stories and their own culture, and that comes through in the stories that are being told and those films and that artwork we're making.”