“There is room for you with us. » It is with this sentence uttered as an outstretched hand that the programming director of the Saguenay short film festival, Mélissa Bouchard, sums up the desire for rapprochement behind the creation of the Regards Autochtones competition. For the first time in 28 years of activities, a selection of nine films made by indigenous artists including documentary, fiction, animation and experimental will be presented in the Focus section of the festival, which highlights value cinema from underrepresented communities. The fruit of carefully considered work.
In her own opinion, Mélissa Bouchard was “a little uneducated” about First Nations and Inuit cinema. “The only films I saw were those from the NFB and Wapikoni Mobile,” she explains. I wondered if there was enough content to make a program that would come back every year. » A visit to the ImagineNATIVE indigenous film festival in Toronto confirmed to him that there is talent to spare in the communities.
The idea of founding a competition dedicated to indigenous cinema took three years to come to fruition. An eternity for the programmer, used to working in the heat of the moment. Through contact with Jess Murwin, of Mi’kmaq origin, who participated in the start of the project, she understood that it was necessary to take the time to do things well, in particular by creating a consultation committee in order to ensure that we were listening to communities.
The first recommendation of this committee: that the selection of short films be established by indigenous programmers. Thanks to a partnership developed with the Montreal festival Presence Autochtone, Wendat programmer Vincent Careau joined Jess Murwin to form the duo behind the very first edition of Regards Autochtones. Their varied selection includes works from Canada, the United States and Greenland.
“We wanted to show all of what indigenous filmmakers are capable of doing,” says Vincent Careau, visibly proud of the result. He cites as an example Gabriella And Ancestral Threads, two films that “really warm his heart because they tell the story of today’s youth”. The first is a short fiction film about a young undocumented Guatemalan who dreams of joining a swim team in the United States, while the second, a documentary, profiles Joleen Mitton, founder of Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. Ancestral Threads is also one of Mélissa Bouchard’s favorites in all categories for this 28e edition of Regard. “It’s really a bright, positive and current film,” she rejoices.
Alanis Obomsawin and the next generation
The cohort of young indigenous filmmakers who are inaugurating this competition will be able to count among its spectators none other than the documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, to whom Regard is devoting a retrospective. It is no coincidence that the first presence of the Abenaki artist at the festival occurs at the same time as the inauguration of Regards Autochtones. The 91-year-old filmmaker, whose CV includes more than 50 documentaries, paved the way for the next generation, to whom she has always shown her admiration. “She is super enthusiastic to see how indigenous cinema is developing and to what extent it is now more anchored in the present and the future than in the wounds of the past,” emphasizes Mélissa Bouchard.
The four works selected as part of his retrospective will thus complement the short films from Regards indigenous. They notably address the reality of residential schools as well as the Oka crisis. “I could have presented three days of Alanis’ films,” continues the programming director. We had to make some pretty heartbreaking choices, but I think our selection gives a beautiful portrait of his entire career and interests. »
In addition to taking part in a question/answer session with the public, Alanis Obomsawin will have dinner with other indigenous filmmakers and will take advantage of her stay in Saguenay to meet young people in a school. “She is an extremely generous woman, it is an honor to receive her,” enthuses Mélissa Bouchard, who would ultimately like the filmmaker to lend her name to the prize for the Indigenous Perspectives competition.