SASKATCHEWAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS: REMEMBERING THE PAST, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE THURSDAY MARCH 12TH, 7PM

Thursday March 12th, 7pm

Shumiatcher Theatre, MacKenzie Art Gallery

Doors open at 6:30, Screening at 7:00  

Panel to follow

Free attendance

Food and drink available by Craft Services Cafe

The MacKenzie allows the food and drink in the Shumiatcher Theatre

“Remembering the Past Looking to the Future” is the first screening in a series of Saskatchewan Women filmmakers, curated by Sandra Staples-Jetko. Women have been making films in Saskatchewan for over 100 years. They have worked as part of teams, independently and commercially. “Remembering the Past Looking to the Future” is a collection of eight short films gathered to screen in honour of the memory of Trudy Stewart, a well loved Saskatchewan Filmmaker who passed away October 2019.  The lineup includes films made in various styles including animation, experimental and documentary.”

“Thinking of You” – Elaine Pain – 1 min

“Listening to the Past/Listening to the Future” – Amalie Atkins – 2 mins 57

“From Up North” – Trudy Stewart – 13 mins

“Buffalo Calling” – Tasha Hubbard – 12 mins 29

“ahkameyimo nitanis  – Keep Going my Daughter” – Candy Fox – 12 mins 26

“Land of the Free” – Dianne Ouellette, Margaret Orr – 2 min 54

“First Stories ati-wîcahsin (It’s Getting Easier)” – Tessa Cook – 6 min 29

“Stories Are In Our Bones” – Janine Windolph – 11 mins 27

After we see the films, we will have the opportunity to listen to a panel whose work we screened. Elaine Pain, Dianne Ouellette, Candy Fox, Tessa Cook and Janine Windolph each do a short presentation with questions and answers to follow.

Presented by the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the NFB, and University of Regina Department of Film.

The Saskatchewan Filmpool is proud to be supported by Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, Sask Culture and Saskatchewan Lotteries

“From Up North” – Trudy Stewart – 13 mins A personal, poetic short documentary based on her experience working for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Featured storyteller Noel Starblanket shares his experiences of attending the Lebret Indian Residential School. While listening to Noel’s stories, Trudy reflects on her time listening to survivors’ stories and her connection to the Indian Residential School legacy. “Trudy was a storyteller learning peoples’ stories and gently documenting them in order to make a better future. 

The films in this screening honour Trudy’s life”-Sandra Staples-

“Stories Are in Our Bones” – Janine Windolph – 11 mins 27 A mother takes her young city-raised sons fishing with their kokum (grandmother)—a powerful form of resistance that rebuilds their connection to their homeland, and to one another.Janine Windolph has her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Production and her Master of Fine Arts Interdisciplinary: Media Production and Indigenous Fine Arts. Prior to her role as the Associate Director of Indigenous Arts at the Banff Centre, she worked for the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan since 2015 in various roles; Storykeeper, Education Program Assistant, Curator of Public Programs and Curator of Community Engagement.  As a filmmaker, Janine worked on various films; both documentary and narrative since 2006 that have screened internationally at various festivals and received various awards over the years. Most recently, she was a co-recipient of the University of Regina’s Crowning Achievement Awards for Professional Achievement with Distinction for her role in getting both Municipal and Provincial designation for the Regina Indian Industrial School in Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Recently, she completed Stories Are In Our Bones, a short documentary as a director, writer and narrator, and in a feature documentary to be aired on CBC in 2020, she was a narrator/ storyteller for the Beacon Project: Stories of Qu’Appelle Valley. Janine has served as president/chair of various organizations since 2006; mispon: A Celebration of Indigenous Filmmaking, Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, RIIS Commemorative Association and Reconciliation Regina as well as the Vice-Chair of Common Weal.

“First Stories – ati-wîcahsin (It’s Getting Easier)” – Tessa Desnomie Cook – 6 min 29 In this short film, filmmaker Tessa Desnomie celebrates the life and times of her grandmother, Jane Merasity. Born and raised on the trapline, this Woodlands Cree woman has witnessed significant changes throughout her vigorous 80 years.Tessa Desnomie comes from the Peepeekisis Cree Nation, Saskatchewan. She studied at the First Nations University of Canada, where she researched the traditional work of Indigenous women, and with First Stories: ati-wîcahsin (It’s Getting Easier) in 2007, she celebrates the Woodland Cree culture of her grandmother Jane Merasty. With Second Stories: It Had to Be Done (2008), she confronts the intractable legacy of Canada’s residential school system through the testimony of two survivors. Desnomie has worked in event management, coordinating the opening and closing ceremonies for the North American Indigenous Games, and produced educational videos through Regina’s Studio 10 Productions.

“Land of the Free” – Dianne Ouellette, Margaret Orr – 2 min 54 While exploring the Grasslands National Park and knowing its history, we were thinking about Canada’s 150th commemoration and what it means to Indigenous people. Through Margaret Orr’s spontaneous improvisation with the violin, we created a response to the land.Dianne Ouellette is an independent Métis filmmaker and presently an MFA (Media Production) candidate at the University of Regina. In the last 25 years she has been focusing her lens on family, history, and identity. Her films have been screened and awarded with national, and international recognition. 

As part of her current research she shares personal and inherited stories, along with filming and photographing animals and land interactions. Her MFA project, an artist book and short film, nurtures knowledge in an exploration of her identity, and spiritual connection with more-than-human beings. Through a decolonizing lens, she honours her family and ancestor’s traumatic history by giving them voice. 

Dianne works full-time as a Communications Specialist and is also, a sessional instructor, writer, and curator.

“ahkameyimo nitanis – Keep Going my Daughter” – Candy Fox – 12 mins 26 A young couple, Colby Tootoosis and Andrea Landry, narrates a poetic and hopeful love letter to their daughter reflecting the dreams of a new generation of parents still healing from the traumas of colonialism. Candy Renae Fox is an award-winning film director and actor. She is Plains Cree with Vietnamese and Métis blood lineage. She is a member of the Piapot First Nation in Treaty Four territory or what we know as southern Saskatchewan.

Candy is a graduate of the University of Regina where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts for film production. She has gained experience over the past ten years in directing, editing, cinematography, and documentary work. She was honoured to have her film Backroads be named one of Canada’s Top Ten Student Shorts in 2015 by TIFF. She is an alumnus of the Women in the Director’s Chair internship and National Screen Institute’s IndigiDocs program. Her most recent her film ahkâmêyimo nitânis (Keep Going, My Daughter) was honoured with the awards for Best Short and Audience Choice by the Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards. Her films have screened at festivals both nationally and internationally at imagineNATIVE, Hot Docs, LA Skins, VIFF, and the Wairoa Maori Film Festival. Through her work, Candy finds it imperative to explore themes that are underrepresented as well as connect her to her identity and ancestral history.

“Buffalo Calling” – Tasha Hubbard – 12 mins 29 Buffalo Calling is a short documentary about one of the last herds of plains bison to survive the 19th century bison slaughter. Written and directed by Tasha Hubbard, an assistant professor in the Department of English, the film uses animation, HD video and a custom-design soundscape to bring history to life. A short “making-of” documentary produced by the Banff Centre features the film’s illustrator/animator Mitchell Poundmaker.

Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a writer, filmmaker, and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has ties to Thunderchild First Nation in Treaty Six Territory. She is also the mother of a thirteen-year-old son. Her academic research is on Indigenous efforts to return the buffalo to the lands and Indigenous film in North America. Her first solo writing/directing project Two Worlds Colliding, about Saskatoon’s infamous Starlight Tours, premiered at ImagineNATIVE in 2004 and won the Canada Award at the Gemini Awards in 2005. In 2016, she directed an NFB-produced feature documentary called Birth of a Family about a 60s Scoop family coming together for the first time during a holiday in Banff. It premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival and landed in the top ten audience choice list. It also won the Audience Favourite for Feature Documentary at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Moon Jury prize at ImagineNATIVE. Her latest feature documentary is called nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a personal exploration of the impact of the death of Colten Boushie that premiered in the spring of 2019. It opened the prestigious Hot Docs Festival and won the top Canadian documentary prize. It also won the Colin Low Award for the top Canadian film at the DOXA International Film Festival and a television version will air in Canada on February 23, 2020.

“Thinking of You” – Elaine Pain – 1 min A postcard from rural Saskatchewan, the images are gleaned from works by Elaine Pain and combined with her thoughts on the importance of the Saskatchewan Filmpool Co-operative. Elaine Pain was born in Saskatoon and is an award-winning filmmaker. She has been an independent filmmaker for over thirty-five years, both producing and directing artist driven work on subjects concerning the environment, women’s concerns, prairie history, prairie landscape, oral history, and a sense of place and identity. She addresses these concerns through animation, documentary, non- traditional narrative and experimental. She was a member Atlantic Filmmaker’s Co-op 1978-81, Saskatchewan Filmmaker’s Co-op 1981-96. Her first animation Sandswitch opened a retrospective on animation at the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-operative. The film was the first animation completed at the Co-op and the first non-industrial/commercial animation in Nova Scotia. She taught Film production at U of R: Documentary, Experimental Narrative, and Animation, Film Studies: Introduction to Film Art, History of Animation and Documentary Film in the Department of Film from 1983 to 2009. She was the first female to teach production in the film department. In 2010 she served as a member of the Quality Assessment Review Panel at Capilano University for a Degree Program Review to grant a Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts.

“Listening to the Past/Listening to the Future” – Amalie Atkins – 2 mins 57 Listening to the Past/Listening to the Future is typically shown as a double screen installation. The films play on 16 mm projectors, which are activated by two treadle sewing machines. The film loops continue as long as the viewer operates the treadle. The film, shot at Candle Lake, features twin sisters, who possess the physic ability to send transcontinental messages to each other. Amalie Atkins lives and works in Saskatoon. As a multidisciplinary artist noted for her films and video installations she creates cinematic fables through a blend of film, performance, textiles, installations, and photography. Atkins has exhibited nationally including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Central Art Garage, Gallery 44, The Ottawa Art Gallery, Eastern Edge, Struts Gallery, La Centrale, FADO, Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine. Her work has shown internationally at Moving Image, NYC; 12:14 Contemporary, Vienna; USC Art Gallery Queensland; The Academy Gallery, Tasmania; Gerald Moore Gallery, UK; and Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin. Her work has been included in major survey exhibitions, most notably, Oh, Canada at the MASS MoCA; DreamLand: Textiles in the Canadian Landscape at the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto; and Road Show East, which toured in Eastern Europe. Atkins was the recipient of the Locale Art Award for western Canada (2011) and long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in (2012, 2013). Her photographs have appeared on the covers of Canadian Art Magazine, Visual Arts News, Grain Magazine, CV2, and MUZE magazine (Paris). Her solo exhibition we live on the edge of disaster and imagine we are in a musical toured to the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; and College Art Galleries, Saskatoon. Where the hour floats, was selected for Capture Photo Fest at Evergreen Art Gallery, Coquitlam (2019). Remai Modern premiered her most expansive 16 mm film project to date and was reviewed by Amy Fung in ARTFORUM. Currently her work is on view in Fairy Tales at the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville and in A New Light: Canadian Women Artists at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC