Award Ceremony

2013 Prize list 

Teueikan Prize

Grand Prize: Winter in the Blood by Alex and Andrew Smith. For bringing to the screen, boldly and faithfully, a major work marking the flowering of contemporary Amerindian literature. For a script illustrating the erratic journey of a distraught hero with just enough ironic distancing and emotional proximity, for a film in which realism meets wild imaginings at every turn of a therapeutic odyssey where, at every moment, viewers share the protagonist’s angst, for a complex narrative structure that does justice to the novel, and through its wry takes on classic American movies, acknowledges its own cultural intermix with humour and erudition, the First Peoples’ Festival 2013 awards Teueikan Grand Prize to Winter in the Blood.

Second Prize: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth by Eric Black and FraukeSandig. In a lyrical film with grandiose settings, the directors didn’t lose sight of the heart of the matter: men and women of flesh and blood, who in their humble everyday lives, carry on a very ancient legacy, its wisdom, its cosmovision and its universality. Through these people’s lives, viewers get a glimpse of the prodigious Maya civilization and connect with the prophetic visions of the new cosmic cycle underway. Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth has earned the Second Teueikan Prize.

Nomination: Xingu by Cao Hamburger.

Rigoberta Menchú Prize

Grand Prizes: Gold Fever by J.T. Haines, Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne. Working with conviction among the Indigenous population of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, the directors of this essential documentary have succeeded in fully expressing the words solidarity and resistance. For speaking out against the practices of a gold mining company in rural Guatemala, for showing how the North American corporation, driven by an unhealthy thirst for gold, closes its eyes to the reprehensible activities of the groups mining for it. For its compelling portrait of brave women who defend the Maya people’s territorial rights. The First Peoples’ Festival 2013 jury awards Rigoberta Menchú Grand Prize to Gold Fever.

Second Prize: Point de fuite by Stephen A. Smith, Julia Szucs. For succeeding in portraying with commensurate beauty, the strength of the founding tales of the Inuit nation, for giving a voice to Navarana, the direct descendant of the great shaman Qitdlarssuaq; for this appeal to the forces of the earth and the sky that appear today as flashpoints that can light the road to the future. Point de Fuite has earned Rigoberta Menchú Second Prize.

Nomination: Survival Prayer by Benjamin Greené.

Best Cinematography Prize

Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth de Eric Black and FraukeSandig.A culture is also a way of seeing. Penetrating this viewpoint and depicting it in images is a huge challenge. Whether filming from the air or the sea floor, in grottoes or the heart of the jungle, we can see the ancestral spirit of the Mayas in the breathtaking beauty of the images of Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth, which takes the Best Photo Direction prize, awarded by the First Peoples’ Festival 2013 jury.

Séquences Documentary Prize

Best Documentary Prize: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth by Eric Black and FraukeSandig. An attentive and empathetic look at living beings and landscapes using the language of film to express the concept of the harmonic unity of the universe and providing viewers a sensorial experience that will plunge them, enchanted, into Mayan cosmovision, still alive in the popular wisdom of Indigenous populations of Guatemala and Mexico. For the ambitious and generous aims of a documentary undertaking exploring such a broad subject, and winning its gamble to transmit the vibrant living spirit of one of the major Indigenous cultures of the Americas without deforming it, the Séquences journal jury awards Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth Best Documentary Prize among the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival 2013 selection.

Special Distinction: No Hay lugarlejanoby Michelle Ibaven. For a film that connects us slowly and thoughtfully to the ancestral landscape of the Raramuri community of Mogotavo, while a hotel complex makes their future uncertain; for an original, rigorous documentary approach relying on a long timeframe appropriate to indigenous memory; the Séquences journal jury awards a special distinction toNo hay lugarlejano.

Nomination: Survival Prayer by Benjamin Greené.

Coup de cœurTélé Québec Prize

Grand Prize: Huis clos by Délia Gunn. For a brave, hard-hitting film that bears witness both to the problems an Algonquin family goes through and the need to change things, where the unflinching observation does not overshadow the tenderness of the filmmaker’s vision. Huis closby Délia Gunn has earned the Coup de cœurTélé-Québec Prize, awarded during First Peoples’ Festival 2013.  

Special Distinction: Blocus 138 and L’Enfancedéracinée by Réal Junior Leblanc. For two shorts inspired by his community’s history, Réal Junior Leblanc has proven himself a spokesperson and leader of the Innu Nation and has taken a Special Distinction awarded by the jury of Coup de cœurTélé-Québec for Blocus 138and L’Enfancedéracinée.

Festival Special Distinction

FuimosGigantes by Victor Navarro. For an unconventional use of animation which emphasizes the incantory aspect of the stories the Conca’ac tell, inspired both by their traditional cosmovision and recently imported Christianity, for incrusting a graphic depiction of the stories told in the Sonora region into its coastal landscapes, for transposing an Amerindian culture’s collective imagination into a purely cinematographic language, FuimosGigantes takes a Special Distinction at First People’s Festival 2013.

Main Film Young Hope Prize

Grand Prize: Huis clos byDélia Gunn. An intimate and social approach, in which the harsh realities described plead for the possibilities of a better future, come to the fore in Huis clos, awarded the Mainfilm Young Hope Prize.

Short Subjects

Two films share the prize ex æquo  

Huis clos by Délia Gunn.Without pity or denial, and with touching frankness, this film takes on the difficult reality of alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse and distils, against all odds, a deep sense of hope.For letting a powerful ray of hope into the sombre present, without losing lucidity in an uncompromising look at the problems experienced by an Algonquin family, Huis Clos earns the short subject prize ex æquo.

L’enfance déracinée by Réal Junior Leblanc.The memory of residential schools extends beyond ruins in the memories of the older generation. It remains a burning wound in Innu history. For a poetic, inspired film and a sincere commitment to his people, shining through in his filmmaking work, L’Enfance déracinéetakes the short subject prize ex æquo.

 

Land Insights wishes to thank the Consulate of the United States that contributed to this grand Canadian premiere and Télé-Quebec, presenter of the film and video section.

The festival also benefits from support from the Canadian and Quebec governments,the City of Montreal, the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, Tourism Montreal, the Service de coopération et d'action culturelle du Consulat général de France au Québec, Québécor and Loto-Québec.