Indigenous Presence | Under a Different Eye

Until August 15, the First Peoples Festival builds a bridge between works and performances from indigenous communities around the world. More than just an artistic event, this event is also an opportunity to see things from a different point of view, often overlooked. The film The King’s Daughtersby Corey Payette, is a good example.

We have all heard of the “King’s Daughters”, these women recruited in France in the 17th century.^e century to marry settlers and populate New France. Many of us were taught that they were nothing more or less than prostitutes, something historians have since refuted. That’s not the only detail that’s wrong with this story: this continent was already populated, as a character in Corey Payette’s film points out.

Both a composer, director and screenwriter, this creator with Mohawk, Franco-Ontarian and Irish roots who has lived in Vancouver for 15 years has also worn the director’s hat for The King’s Daughtersa film adapted from a musical co-written with actress Julie McIsaac. The initial idea was hers, he emphasizes, speaking of his colleague who had first approached him to entrust her with the musical aspect of the project. Interested by the synopsis, he got to work.

The King’s Daughters focuses on the fate of two women: Marie-Jeanne Lespérance (Julie McIsaac), the king’s daughter who has just arrived, and Kateri (Kaitlyn Yott), a young Mohawk woman destined for the role of clan chief. Intrigued by Jean-Baptiste (Raes Calvert), Kateri’s brother, from her first meeting with him, Marie-Jeanne will be more attracted to the ways of the first peoples than the French colonists to whom they are trying to marry her. Which will cause trouble for everyone.

Mixing points of view

Corey Payette doesn’t just mix French, English and Mohawks in his story, he also shot it by juxtaposing the languages ​​of each of these communities. “It was a good way to represent the different cultures,” says the creator, whose first fiction film this is.

This idea of ​​mixing also finds an echo on the formal level. The director had fun multiplying the very cinematic shots showing nature stretching as far as the eye can see (“The forest is a character in its own right,” he says), but also kept codes belonging to the theater to invite them to the big screen.

Thus, on more than one occasion, he shows in the same scene actions taking place in different places and sometimes at different times, giving a poetic scope to his film.

This process is not foreign to people who frequent the theater. “I wondered if the cinema audience would get on board,” he admits, emphasizing that the most commercial cinema is often very literal. These scenes are ultimately among those that mark the audience the most.

The King’s Daughters, Friday, 6 p.m., at the Museum Cinema

Diving into drag

Corey Payette, who previously directed a show about residential schools called Children of God (Children of God), has almost completed his second feature-length fiction film, also adapted from a musical. Starwalker focuses on a two-spirited Indigenous drag queen who discovers the drag community in East Vancouver. The director calls it a story of love and self-discovery, filled with “the joy that exists in queer communities.”

With drag under attack in Vancouver, as it is in Montreal and many other places in North America, Corey Payette believes his film could help to raise awareness of it. Men impersonating women on stage is nothing new, he says. “What’s new is what’s projected onto the art,” he says, referring to the perversion some see in a subculture that is also associated with homosexuals.

“I think the more people understand what’s behind the art of drag and why some people choose this form of expression, the more it will demystify it and contribute to its greater acceptance.” Starwalker is expected to hit theaters in 2025.

Other suggestions

Oktoecho

The Oktoecho ensemble, active since 2001, has set itself the mission of blending musical traditions from here and the Middle East. Its project Saimaniq Sivumut continues the work begun in 2018 around the Ayaya song and the Inuit drum and for which this group with variable geometry won an Opus award for album of the year in the category “world music and traditional Quebec music”. Its way of amalgamating traditions of the Far North with Arabist chants and melodies evoking Irish laments is unique and very pleasant to the ear. This musical and human exchange with the Inuit, begun in 2010, is most fruitful!

This Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., at Place des Festivals

AI

It’s not just here that Indigenous artists are searching for and finding their place by merging their roots with more modern musical styles. IA, a Maori group from New Zealand, draws heavily on a pop version of soul music to create mellow tunes that feature the silky tones of the vivo, a traditional flute, and another wind instrument made from a large seashell. The duo of Moetu Smoth and Reti Hedley are performing at the Asinabka Festival in Ottawa the day before their Montreal show. Fans of smooth soul pop with echoes of the 1980s might be seduced.

Thursday, 8:30 p.m., at Place des Festivals

Eallogierdu

Camped in northern Norway, territory of the Sámi people, Eallogierdu – The Tundra Within Me tells of an unexpected culture shock. Lena, originally from this corner of the world, returns to her native village with her son long after having left it. A visual artist, she is working on a project about women who lead caribou herds. Her return is supposed to be temporary, but she will meet a rancher whom she will become close to, which will not please his family. This return to her native country will also awaken demons lurking in her past…

Thursday, 8:30 p.m., at the Museum Cinema

DJ Shub

Noticed within the group A Tribe Called Red that he left in 2014, DJ Shub (Dan General) has since continued his musical mix called PowWowStep and multiplied collaborations with artists of other origins like Boogat. The Mohawk artist from the Turtle Clan of the Six Nations of the Grand River is the 2022 winner of the Juno Award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year. He will present a concert in downtown Montreal entitled War Club Livewhere electro and hip-hop music mix with traditional songs and drums. Dancers in ceremonial costumes will also take part in the show.

Friday, 8:30 p.m., at Place des Festivals

Atikamekw Suns

This tough and beautiful film by Chloé Leriche based on a true story did not have the success it deserved when it was released in theaters last spring. Atikamekw Suns tells the story of the shock experienced in June 1977 in Manawan when five members of the community drowned in what appeared to be a road accident. The whole truth about this tragedy has not been revealed since no investigation worthy of the name was conducted at the time. Shot in the Atikamekw language, this film has a rhythm of its own and finds a little light despite the grief that literally overwhelms the community. It also opens eyes to a denial of justice that, until very recently, seemed common when it comes to tragedies affecting our indigenous neighbours. Free screening.

Sunday, 2 p.m., at the Grande Bibliothèque