Events

The festival opens with a  screening of the 2017 documentary feature When They Awake on the theme of Indigenous music and self-discovery. Following the screening will be a Q&A with Edmontonians featured in the film. 6:00 PM – Doors Open 6:30 PM – Festival Opening Greetings 6:45 PM – Film: When They Awake 8:15 PM…

The topic of land and treaty rights highlights Day 2 of the festival, with a community screening of Treaty Talk: Sharing the River of Life, produced by Patricia Makokis based in Edmonton.  A discussion with local participants will follow. 6:30 PM – Doors Open 7:00 PM – Film: Treaty Talk: Sharing the River of Life…

For the second half of the double feature, At 9pm, we continue the focus on land rights with a screening of Alanis Obomsawin’s powerful 1993 documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. This is a topical film considering the debate in recent months about pipelines and First Nations land rights in BC. 8:30 PM – Doors…

Thursday night is a double feature and a retrospective/look forward at truth, reconciliation and colonization. We mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the 1989 film Where The Spirit Lives, one of the first mainstream Canadian dramas to show the Residential School experience.  Following the first screening, we will discuss the evening’s films with…

For the second half of this double feature night, we will discuss the evening’s films with Where the Spirit Lives featured Actor and Colonization Road Director, Michelle St. John, in attendance. Following the discussion, we will explore colonization in Canada and its lasting physical and social impacts, through the 2016 documentary feature Colonization Road. 8:30…

The Canadian Multicultural Education Foundation partners with RISE for a back to back screening of two topical NFB shorts, A Tribe of One (2003) and Between: Living in the Hyphen (2005).  This will be followed by a discussion with Elders from both the Indigenous and Chinese communities to discuss the topic of identity. 6:00 PM…

Following the night’s double feature theme of culture and identity, the second half of the evening continues with the 2016 documentary feature, The Birth of a Family. After the screening, cast members from the film will join us for a brief Q&A 8:30 PM – Doors Open 9:00 PM – Film: The Birth of a…

Join filmmakers Drew Nicholas and Megan Whitmer with special guest Sandy White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota) for the Canadian Premiere of their new documentary feature, Blood Memory – a film about Native American child welfare and healing historical trauma.  Nine years in the making, this film highlights efforts leading to Congressional approval of the Indian Child…