Revisioning the Americas through Indigenous Cinema Conference

Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS) and Kahnawà:ke (Host Hotel)

Organized from Queen’s University
As part of Montreal’s First Peoples’ Festival│Présence autochtone

The International Conference Revisioning the Americas through Indigenous Cinema is a scholarly and cultural event that has, since its inception in 2009, examined the role of Indigenous filmmaking experiences and visions in what were, are and can become the Americas. Held as part of Montreal First Peoples’ Festival Présence autochtone, it aims to build bridges between academia and the world of Indigenous film and media.

In 2019, the conference is organized from Queen’s University, in partnership with Terres en vues and, through it, the Language and Cultural Center Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa (KORLCC). It is also organized in collaboration with the Coop Vidéo de Montréal and the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC MTL).  

To celebrate the International Year of Indigenous Languages declared by the United Nations (UN), the conference’s 7^thedition will put forward the multiple connections between film and Indigenous languages.

Monday, August 12 2019

Day Program—Location: INIS, 301, boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, Montréal.

10:30-10:45 AM: Welcoming remarks by the organizing committee. André Dudemaine (Terres en vues), Mélissa Gélinas (Concordia University), and Isabelle St-Amand (Queen’s University).

10:45 AM-12:15 PM: A screening of Māori and Pasifika short films, followed by a panel discussion with Bradley Tangonan (filmmaker), Leo Koziol (Wairoa Māori Film Festival), Deborah Walker-Morrison (Wairoa Māori Film Festival), and Louisa Tipene Opetaia (Wairoa Māori Film Festival). Moderated by Mélissa Gélinas (Concordia University). The participants will discuss their work, their vision, as well as the place that one or more Indigenous language(s) may have in their research, filmmaking, or curating practices and/or Māori and Pasifika life and cinema, more generally.

12:30 PM-13:30 PM: A keynote address by Deborah Walker-Morrison (The University of Auckland): “Ka korero tonu mātou│We Are Still Speaking: Te reo Māori in New-Zealand Cinema.” Moderated by Isabelle St-Amand (Queen’s University). A presentation on the absence, presence, (re)presentation and revitalization of the Māori (Te reo) language in Aotearoa cinema of the last two decades, in both Pākehā and Māori productions.  

1:30 PM: Networking workshop (by invitation).

4:00-5:00 PM: A conference by June Scudeler (Simon Fraser University), “Wâkhôtowin in the Works of Thirza Cuthand, Kent Monkman, and Adrian Stimson.” Presented in collaboration with the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC MTL). Moderated by Adria Kurchina-Tyson (Queen’s University).  A presentation on how Cuthand, Monkman, and Stimson model Cree ways of knowing by searching for and creating communities of queer Indigenous people in their artistic practices. 

Evening Program—Location: Kahnawà:ke, Host Hotel, 1860 route 132, Kahnawà:ke. A free bus shuttle to Kahnawà:ke from downtown Montreal and back will be available. At INIS, 6pm.

7:00-9:00 PM: A screening of the Kanien’kéha version of Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, followed by a Q&A with her. Moderated by Konwanénhon Marion Delaronde (KORLCC).

Tuesday, August 13 2019

Day Program—Location: INIS, 301, boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, Montréal.

10:00 AM-12:00 PM: Professional Get-Together: “Supports for emerging Indigenous creators”, with Jean Hamel (INIS), Christina Pham and Adam Garnet Jones (Telefilm Canada), Mathieu Plante (SARTEC), Guillaume Thériault (CALQ), and Odile Joannette (Wapikoni mobile). Presented by the Coop Vidéo de Montréal. The Coop Vidéo de Montréal invites various actors from the film community to present the various funding and training opportunities available to Inuit, Métis, and First Nations filmmakers in Québec. This information session will be followed by a Q&A and will allow for informal meetings with the invited presenters in a “coffee-get-together” atmosphere.  The Coop Vidéo wishes to support the emergence and continuity of a strong Indigenous cinematographic expression, today and in the future.

1:30-3:00 PM: A roundtable on the conditions of emergence of Indigenous cinema, with Alexis Fortier Gauthier (Coop Vidéo), Kevin Papatie (director), and Jean-François D. O’Bomsawin (APTN). Moderated by Claudine Cyr (ENAP). The participants will focus on key elements of Indigenous cinema’s conditions of possibility: the modus operandi and aims of those who make this cinema and their communities, financing, infrastructures, the interplay between Québec institutions and Indigenous cinema, and correlate issues.  

3:15-4:15 PM: Academic Panel: “Cinema and Indigenous Languages: Representation, (Re)vitalization and Decolonization.” Moderated by Marie-Eve Bradette (Université de Montréal).

« Le rôle du cinéma documentaire dans le processus de décolonisation linguistique et de revitalisation des langues autochtones:  la régénération du wampanoag dans le film We Still Live Here (2014) d’Anne Makepeace. »  By Karine Betrand (Queen’s University).

« Scénographies d’écoute des langues autochtones dans la tradition documentaire canadienne/québécoise: Arthur Lamothe, Alanis Obomsawin et Kevin Papatie. » By Michèle Garneau (Université de Montréal).

4:30-5:15 PM: “Cinema and the vitalisibility of Atikamekw: An Interview with Jemmy Echaquan Dubé (Wapikoni mobile).” Moderated by Mélissa Gélinas (Concordia University). This interview with Jemmy Echaquan Dubé will focus on the significance of mobilizing the Atikamekw language in cinema and as part of her work as an emerging filmmaker.

Evening Program—Location: Kahnawà:ke, Host Hotel, 1860 route 132, Kahnawà:ke. A free bus shuttle to Kahnawà:ke from downtown Montreal and back will be available. At INIS, 6pm.

7:00-9:00 PM: A panel discussion around the Kanien’kéha version of Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, with Alanis Obomsawin (director, NFB), Hilda Nicholas (translator and director of Kanehsatà:ke’s Language and Cultural Centre), and Ellen Gabriel (artist and Indigenous human rights activist). Moderated by Deborah Walker-Morrison (The University of Auckland). The participants will discuss the translation process, the significance of the translation to Kanien’kéha of this film, as well as the context and expected outcomes.

***Whispered simultaneous interpretation (English-French) available***

Context and History of the Conference

Since its creation in 2009, the International Conference Revisioning the Americas through Indigenous Cinema examines the role of Indigenous filmmaking experiences and visions in what were, are and can become the Americas. Held as part of Montreal First Peoples’ Festival│Présence autochtone, this scholarly and cultural event aims to build bridges between academia and the world of Indigenous film and media in order to develop relevant theoretical reflections on these multidimensional practices and productions (cinema, media, television, web, podcasts), as they materialize and are understood in the places from which they emerge. This conference was co-founded and developed in partnership with Terres en vues/Lands InSights, Indigenous organization for the dissemination of Indigenous culture and, through it, the Kahnawà:ke Linguistic and Cultural Center Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa (KORLCC). In 2019, it is organized from Queen’s University, in collaboration with the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University. This conference is in itself a collaborative research process that significantly orients our inquiries.

About Coop Video

The Coop Video has been involved in cinema for over 40 years. Throughout the past decades, Coop filmmakers have created strong, bold, and uncompromising films that have transcended time. Singular visions which at times blur the lines between fiction and documentary. With 70 films and more than a hundred awards, distinctions and mentions, this flagship institution in Quebec filmmaking illuminates the screens of the greatest events in the world.

With a desire to foster the cinematographic expression of Indigenous voices, the Coop Video is pleased to offer its support to emerging artists.

For more information: www.coopvideo.ca