First Stories: Saskatchewan
It's been soooo long......
Well, I have to start by saying that it's been a good couple of months. My school put on a festival called Mispon, a Celebration of Indigenous Filmmaking. There were screenings, lectures, keynote speakers, and a pitch session. Alanis Obomsawin was the keynote speaker and a few students were chosen to meet with her one on one. I was luckily one of those people and it was an honour to spend time with one of my filmmaking heros. We were alloted twenty minutes to discuss our works in progress to get her opinion or feedback. I ended up taking thirty five minutes, lol. She was a gentle, wise, intelligent person to talk to and I appreciated getting the opportunity to spend time with her.
Another nice surprise I had this last couple of months was that my professor had emailed me about a program put on by the NFB called First Stories: Saskatchewan. I applied for the program and much to my surprise, was accepted.
So we spent a week in Yorkton for this workshop. We arrived in Yorkton at our hotel late afternoon Sunday. A small group of us decided to go check out the Pow Wow that was happening in town. I got some good footage of the dancing.
Monday morning we started off with a traditional pipe ceremony with Elder Roy Bison. Monday was "Inspiration Day". We spent the morning talking and introducing ourselves to the group. We watched some short docs in the afternoon and discussed them. We screened Tasha Hubbard's documentary Two Worlds Colliding and got to spend some time talking with her afterwards. Tasha spent almost four days with us and she was so nice and great to talk to. Her film was about the frozen abandonment deaths in Saskatoon and the impact it had on the city of Saskatoon. It's such a shame the police are not given any cultural education on First Nations people.
Tuesday morning, one of our friends had a death in the family and Elder Roy held a traditional mourning ceremony to support her. That was something I felt privileged to take part in. Following that, we spent the day with Don White, who gave us a storytelling workshop. It was good information but some of it was a review because I had just finished taking a narrative theory class in film. We had Tuesday night off, so some of us girls went to a nearby pub for beer and fish and chips. I should also say that one of the great things about this workshop was meeting the people. All fifteen had some amazing stories, and I'm not sure if it was because we were all First Nations people, but we all bonded immediately. One of my new friends, Tawney, was filming interviews and whatnot throughout the week as a video diary for the cable access channel. She interviewed myself and my new friend, Amber.
Wednesday was Technical Day. Cinematographer Thomas Hale and sound guy Cary Ciesielski gave us some great info on cinematography and sound and how to direct those departments. But, the highlight of the day was editor Jackie Dzuba who gave us a really good workshop on editing. She also screened her documentary she directed for VisionTv called Village of Spirits: Lilydale, which was very moving and touching. I really enjoyed meeting Jackie. Later on back at the hotel, I filmed some footage of Tawney interviewing other participants, sort of as a 'behind the scenes' of her video diary.
Thursday was the start of the Yorkton Short Film Festival. We took part in Emerging Filmmaker's Day. We started off by screening Gail Maurice's Smudge, a short doc about the challenges of smudging in an urban center. Smudging is a traditional native indian way of praying by burning sweetgrass. I had actually met Gail earlier in the hotel restaurant at breakfast, as we were the only two in the restaurant. She is a great lady and very beautiful to boot. We then screened the First Stories: Manitoba short docs. We saw Ervin Chartrand's Patrick Ross, my personal favorite which was a poignant and visually stunning look at an ex prison inmate's personal reflections while he is painting, Lorne Olsen's Apples and Indians, which was a humorous look at an aborignal man's identity crisis, and Shannon Letendre's Nganawendaanan Nde'ing, which was very good also about Shannon's connection to her roots while living in the city. I got to meet and spend time with all three and they were all awesome and so nice. All three extended the offer to keep in contact in order to help out with any questions about the pitch we have to do. We met with the Minister Glenn Hagel for photo ops and stuff in the afternoon. We had a workshop with Saskatchewan filmmaker Brian Stockton and SCN's Richard Gustin. Later on in the afternoon we also attended SCN's reception and got to meet industry bigwigs in the community, broadcasters, producers, yada. Then onto a bbq held by the festival. I spent the evening after having a few drinks and laughing and bonding with some of my new friends.
Friday we had a workshop entitled "Secrets to Success". The first panel included Saskatchewan animator Dennis Jackson. We happened to see his "Wapos Bay: There's No 'I' in Hockey" short. It was great. I especially enjoyed the Indian equivalent to Don Cherry, "Don Red Cherry". I got the chance to meet and briefly talk with him. The other panelist was John Pattison from Comedy Network's "Puppets Who Kill". That was a great panel. The next panel was great, too. Chris Triffo, from Partners in Motion and director of Dad and Brian McKenna of Big Sugar and other great and controversial documentaries gave a very informative panel discussion on documentary filmmaking. Then we had a wind up reception with all the sponsors of the program and were given details about the next stage. We pitch June 8 and out of fifteen of us, they will choose four or five to write and direct a five minute doc. We will be provided with a professional crew and get paid an honorarium. We will also have it broadcast on SCN and possibly CBC. So I'm coming up with a great idea to pitch and keeping my fingers crossed!
Overall, it was such a great week. Kind of like film industry camp. I met a lot of great people, who are all passionate about filmmaking too. Also, we all share the common goal of getting our stories out there and having our voices heard. We had some great workshop leaders and panelists. I made some connections with other filmmakers and broadcasters. We were featured in news stories in Regina's Leader Post and on CBC and CTV news. We came home with a bag of shwag from the sponsors with water bottles, bags, tshirts, books and pens. They put us up in the nicest hotel in Yorkton, and the Yorkton Short Film Festival committee was so great to us, as well. They fed us a nice breakfast every morning, and they were very helpful, accomodating and friendly. I feel so lucky and grateful I got the wonderful opportunity to take part in this program.
Keep your fingers crossed for me......til next time.....
Well, I have to start by saying that it's been a good couple of months. My school put on a festival called Mispon, a Celebration of Indigenous Filmmaking. There were screenings, lectures, keynote speakers, and a pitch session. Alanis Obomsawin was the keynote speaker and a few students were chosen to meet with her one on one. I was luckily one of those people and it was an honour to spend time with one of my filmmaking heros. We were alloted twenty minutes to discuss our works in progress to get her opinion or feedback. I ended up taking thirty five minutes, lol. She was a gentle, wise, intelligent person to talk to and I appreciated getting the opportunity to spend time with her.
Another nice surprise I had this last couple of months was that my professor had emailed me about a program put on by the NFB called First Stories: Saskatchewan. I applied for the program and much to my surprise, was accepted.
So we spent a week in Yorkton for this workshop. We arrived in Yorkton at our hotel late afternoon Sunday. A small group of us decided to go check out the Pow Wow that was happening in town. I got some good footage of the dancing.
Monday morning we started off with a traditional pipe ceremony with Elder Roy Bison. Monday was "Inspiration Day". We spent the morning talking and introducing ourselves to the group. We watched some short docs in the afternoon and discussed them. We screened Tasha Hubbard's documentary Two Worlds Colliding and got to spend some time talking with her afterwards. Tasha spent almost four days with us and she was so nice and great to talk to. Her film was about the frozen abandonment deaths in Saskatoon and the impact it had on the city of Saskatoon. It's such a shame the police are not given any cultural education on First Nations people.
Tuesday morning, one of our friends had a death in the family and Elder Roy held a traditional mourning ceremony to support her. That was something I felt privileged to take part in. Following that, we spent the day with Don White, who gave us a storytelling workshop. It was good information but some of it was a review because I had just finished taking a narrative theory class in film. We had Tuesday night off, so some of us girls went to a nearby pub for beer and fish and chips. I should also say that one of the great things about this workshop was meeting the people. All fifteen had some amazing stories, and I'm not sure if it was because we were all First Nations people, but we all bonded immediately. One of my new friends, Tawney, was filming interviews and whatnot throughout the week as a video diary for the cable access channel. She interviewed myself and my new friend, Amber.
Wednesday was Technical Day. Cinematographer Thomas Hale and sound guy Cary Ciesielski gave us some great info on cinematography and sound and how to direct those departments. But, the highlight of the day was editor Jackie Dzuba who gave us a really good workshop on editing. She also screened her documentary she directed for VisionTv called Village of Spirits: Lilydale, which was very moving and touching. I really enjoyed meeting Jackie. Later on back at the hotel, I filmed some footage of Tawney interviewing other participants, sort of as a 'behind the scenes' of her video diary.
Thursday was the start of the Yorkton Short Film Festival. We took part in Emerging Filmmaker's Day. We started off by screening Gail Maurice's Smudge, a short doc about the challenges of smudging in an urban center. Smudging is a traditional native indian way of praying by burning sweetgrass. I had actually met Gail earlier in the hotel restaurant at breakfast, as we were the only two in the restaurant. She is a great lady and very beautiful to boot. We then screened the First Stories: Manitoba short docs. We saw Ervin Chartrand's Patrick Ross, my personal favorite which was a poignant and visually stunning look at an ex prison inmate's personal reflections while he is painting, Lorne Olsen's Apples and Indians, which was a humorous look at an aborignal man's identity crisis, and Shannon Letendre's Nganawendaanan Nde'ing, which was very good also about Shannon's connection to her roots while living in the city. I got to meet and spend time with all three and they were all awesome and so nice. All three extended the offer to keep in contact in order to help out with any questions about the pitch we have to do. We met with the Minister Glenn Hagel for photo ops and stuff in the afternoon. We had a workshop with Saskatchewan filmmaker Brian Stockton and SCN's Richard Gustin. Later on in the afternoon we also attended SCN's reception and got to meet industry bigwigs in the community, broadcasters, producers, yada. Then onto a bbq held by the festival. I spent the evening after having a few drinks and laughing and bonding with some of my new friends.
Friday we had a workshop entitled "Secrets to Success". The first panel included Saskatchewan animator Dennis Jackson. We happened to see his "Wapos Bay: There's No 'I' in Hockey" short. It was great. I especially enjoyed the Indian equivalent to Don Cherry, "Don Red Cherry". I got the chance to meet and briefly talk with him. The other panelist was John Pattison from Comedy Network's "Puppets Who Kill". That was a great panel. The next panel was great, too. Chris Triffo, from Partners in Motion and director of Dad and Brian McKenna of Big Sugar and other great and controversial documentaries gave a very informative panel discussion on documentary filmmaking. Then we had a wind up reception with all the sponsors of the program and were given details about the next stage. We pitch June 8 and out of fifteen of us, they will choose four or five to write and direct a five minute doc. We will be provided with a professional crew and get paid an honorarium. We will also have it broadcast on SCN and possibly CBC. So I'm coming up with a great idea to pitch and keeping my fingers crossed!
Overall, it was such a great week. Kind of like film industry camp. I met a lot of great people, who are all passionate about filmmaking too. Also, we all share the common goal of getting our stories out there and having our voices heard. We had some great workshop leaders and panelists. I made some connections with other filmmakers and broadcasters. We were featured in news stories in Regina's Leader Post and on CBC and CTV news. We came home with a bag of shwag from the sponsors with water bottles, bags, tshirts, books and pens. They put us up in the nicest hotel in Yorkton, and the Yorkton Short Film Festival committee was so great to us, as well. They fed us a nice breakfast every morning, and they were very helpful, accomodating and friendly. I feel so lucky and grateful I got the wonderful opportunity to take part in this program.
Keep your fingers crossed for me......til next time.....
posted by trudyrox at 12:18 AM
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