Acclaimed Mi'kmaw filmmaker Jeff Barnaby dead at 46

Mi'kmaw filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, considered a vi‐ sionary of modern Indige‐ nous cinema, has died.

The director's representa‐ tives say he died after a year‐ long battle with cancer. He was 46.

Raised on the Listuguj Re‐ serve in Quebec, Barnaby helmed many short films, in‐ cluding the Jutra Award-nomi‐ nated The Colony and the Ge‐ nie-nominated File Under

Miscellaneous.

The writer-director, who continued to be based in Montreal during much of his career, gained acclaim for his 2013 debut feature Rhymes for Young Ghouls. The film criticized Canada's residential school system in a way that hadn't been widely seen in cinema before. Set in the 1970s, it also reminded audi‐ ences that the events it de‐ picted were not ancient histo‐

ry.

Barnaby followed up Ghouls with the 2019 zombie horror film Blood Quan‐ tum, which swept the Canadi‐ an Screen Awards, winning six out of its 10 nominations — the most of any film at the awards that year. It featured a cast that was nearly all Indige‐ nous and took Barnaby more than 13 years from concep‐ tion to debut.

"In qualified and political terms, it's 100 per cent a Na‐ tive zombie exploitation film," Barnaby said in a 2020 interview with CBC.

Blood Quantum depicted a zombie outbreak on a fic‐ tional Mi'kmaq reserve. Though it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, its theatrical release was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it was instead released on streaming services in 2020.

"People keep calling it a pressing film with all of the stuff happening now because of the virus," Barnaby said of the movie, which loosely par‐ alleled the ongoing pandem‐ ic. "Meanwhile Native people have been putting up with it forever."

Friends share sor‐ row, praise

Friends and contempo‐ raries shared their sorrow soon after news of his death broke.

"Beautifully stubborn 'til the very end, Jeff Barnaby was bold in his life and his work. He bore a sensitivity, poignancy and depth within him, that translated through his films and resonated with audiences Indigenous and non-Native alike," friend and actor Kawennáhere Devery Ja‐ cobs was quoted as saying in a media release.

Jacobs — who currently stars in the Taika Waititi-creat‐ ed series Reservation Dogs and who will appear in the upcoming Marvel se‐ ries Echo — starred in Rhymes for Young Ghouls.

In the release, she went on to say she "wouldn't be an ac‐ tor today" without the influ‐ ence of Barnaby, whose films "resonated with audiences In‐ digenous and non-Native alike."

On Twitter, Toronto Inter‐ national Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey described Barnaby as an "artist powered by a blazing fire," who "under‐ stood horror on its deepest levels."

"Canadian cinema was bet‐ ter for having his talents, pas‐ sion and vision," said actor and writer Jay Baruchel in his own post.

And fellow Canadian screenwriter and director Ja‐ son Eisener shared that Barn‐ aby "was incredibly talented with a strong inspirational voice."

Barnaby is survived by his wife, Sarah Del Seronde, and son, Miles.