Watch #Indigeneity 2022 Trailer
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#Indigeneity

In-person screening and discussion January 27, 2022 at 7pm | Virtual screening and recorded discussion January 29th to February 8th
VIFF Centre | 1181 Seymour Street
Proof of vaccination and ID required. Masks must be worn throughout the event.

#Indigeneity focuses on resiliency left over from colonization and how we can move forward.

Trailer | Cause | Viewing Instructions | Buy Tickets

The Film: #Indigeneity 2022

#Indigeneity focuses on resiliency left over from colonization and how we can move forward on our journey while also ensuring we’re taking up space in a way that’s effective for settlers to understand.

Indigenous Curator Rylan Friday’s goal is to showcase various narratives that hold a universal truth and to showcase that, as Indigenous people, we’re more than our trauma and tragedies. We’re also our songs, our humour, our stories, our traditions. We are medicine.

PROGRAM

Clouds of Autumn – Trevor Mack

Set on the Tsilhqot’in plateau in the 1970s, Clouds of Autumn focuses on a young Indigenous boy named William and his older sister Shayl whose carefree childhoods are torn apart when Shayl is forced to attend a residential school. Singular visual interpretations infuse co-director Trevor Mack’s family history with a slowly shifting tone that evokes loss and love.

Remembering the Forgotten Children – Graham Constant

Graham Constant created this documentary while at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Follow him and his colleagues as they visit the site of the former Muskowekwan Residential School, tour the school, speak with Survivors, and learn about the unmarked burials surrounding former school property.

Joe Buffalo – Amar Chebib

Joe Buffalo is an Indigenous skateboard legend. He’s also a survivor of the notorious Indian Residential School system. Following a traumatic childhood and decades of addiction, Joe must face his inner demons to realize his dream of turning pro.

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again – Courtney Montour

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement.

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The Cause: Indian Residential School Survivors Society

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) is a provincial organization with a twenty-year history of providing services to Indian Residential School Survivors.

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society began in 1994 as a working committee of the First Nations Summit. We were known as the Residential School Project, housed out of and as a part of the BC First Nations Summit. Our work was primarily to assist Survivors with the litigation process pertaining to Residential School abuses. In more recent years our work has expanded to include assisting the descendants of Survivors and implementing Community education measures (Indigenous & Non-Indigenous).

As of March 2002, we formally became the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). The IRSSS is governed by an elected Board of Directors from six regions of BC; the Board of Directors are also Survivors or Intergenerational Survivors of Residential Schools. The Board of Directors is responsible for the funding of the organization and delegates its day-to-day duties to our Executive Director. The Executive Director is hired by the Board of Directors and hold full responsibility for the implementation of Board initiatives and policies and hiring staff. The board is supported by a staff of 20 professionals and 16 Elders who provide Cultural Support, most of whom are either Indian Residential School Survivors or Intergenerational Survivors.

IRSSS provides essential services to Residential School Survivors, their families, and those dealing with Intergenerational traumas. These impacts affect every family and every community across B.C. and Canada. This fact is most evident in the Corrections Canada Services-the numbers of First Nations people incarcerated, Child and Family Services child apprehensions, the high number of people on social assistance, unemployment and underemployed, lower levels of education, the lowest number within an ethnic minority of “determinants of health”, the list of impacts is extremely high while the services available to effectively assist impacts of Residential Schools remain quite low.

One of our Society’s goals is to continually expand our support to partner organizations and maximize access to culturally sensitive, emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual care.

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Virtual Viewing Instructions

1. Purchase a ticket here or by clicking on the Get Tickets section.
2. You will receive an email on January 29th with information on how to watch the films and recorded panel discussion.
3. The #Indigeneity shorts and recorded panel discussion will be available from January 29th to February 8th.

Get Tickets

City of Vancouver
BC Arts Council
Canada Council for the Arts
SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement
Consumer Protection BC