All events take place at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture/DËnÄkÄr Zho,
2nd & Princess, unless otherwise noted.
To buy passes online click here.
Passes will also be available at KIAC and at the door
Individual screening tickets are onlY available at the door (cash or card).
Thursday-Sunday (after dark), 4 Projections on the Princess Street side of KIAC/Dënäkär Zho after sunset each night.
Screening sponsor
Resting Place
Brittney Appleby, BC, 3m
For those living with invisible illness we often find ourselves repetitively returning to rest. Resting Place captures the filmmaker returning to bed and reflects on their experiences living with chronic illness.
learning the language
Haydn Grace, Yukon, 5m
Learning the Language was created using a combination of Super 8 film + digital and explores the land and what it can teach us if we take the time to listen.
Orange ribbons
Remi LeBouthillier, Yukon, 5m
Piñata in his brain he squeezed the cranberry juice. The swimming fish, fast running dogs, and fluttering ribbons, symbolizing the joy, frustration and privilege of travel. The hot spruce tar burns fast and hot but not for long before it goes out. Them dogs could run all day long if you let them. Roosters love hot peppers
Ecologies of Intimacy
Nicole Schafenacker,Yukon, 5m
This work explores the permeability between our bodies and the environments we inhabit through layered videos filmed on Tàkádàdhà/Marsh Lake and the Tágà Shäw/Yukon River. It tracks the seasonal changes between polar night and midnight sun through these bodies of water and asks, “How does the shift from ice to spring thaw to open water resonate in our own bodies of water?” Ecologies of Intimacy is a celebration of kinship.
Thanks for the projection room
THURSDAY, MARCH 28
7PM
The audience speaks (FREE)
For 25 years the DCISFF Audience has voted on it’s favourite films.
These are a few of them!
screening sponsor
TAlK TO ME (2021)
TALK TO ME, JULES DE NIVERVILLE, QUÉBEC, 14M
TALK TO ME is a 14-minute narrative film about not fitting in, in an over-the-top kind of way
“THE TALK” TRUE STORIES ABOUT THE BIRDS & THE BEES (2015)
Alain Delannoy, Manitoba, Animation, 9m
Adult men share their stories of how their fathers explained sex to them as kids in an animated compilation.
It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2013)
Don Hetrzfeldt, USA, Animation, 23m
Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche.
THE PROVIDER (2020)
Jayden Soroka, Yukon, Documentary, 9m
“The Provider” brings to life the experience of a man’s first hunt at the age of thirty three, eighteen years later than tradition holds, an event that would define his place in his community and open his eyes to where he belongs.
Seven-year-old Assini and her friends often play Cowboys and Indians. But when Assini discovers that she herself is an “Indian,” the game takes a new turn.
Deep Space Dredge (2018)
Jay Armitage, YukonEx, Animation, 10m
When mankind decides to prospect and mine the richness of space, who better to tackle this endeavour than the resourceful citizens of Dawson City, Yukon.
FRIDAY, MARCH 29
12noon-4pm
KIAC CLassroom
WORKSHOP (FREE)
No Camera? No Problem!
this workshop concentrates on creating images on film using cameraless techniques and is important for artists who are interested in challenging boundaries around creating media art and images.
Working with 16mm film we will explore many interesting cameraless and handmade film techniques that will change the way you think about film. This will allow you to expand analogue film practice including black and white hand processing, a DIY replacement for lab contact printing, (hand contact printing), offering multiple creative possibilities through the combination of light, speed: alteration and modification of an original quickly and effectively and also photograms (objects placed on 16mm film in the darkroom).
These methods create a unique quality and content of image that are the result of the process and are virtually impossible to recreate digitally, yet can be utilized in digitally based projects to create rare and uncommon environments.
Previous film experience is not required.
Participants will be able to watch their work projected on the screen immediately. Films will alsao be digitally transfered DIY style so they will receive a file as a permanent record and possible future use.
Lindsay McIntyre
Lindsay McIntyre (she/her) is a filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist of Inuit and settler descent working primarily with analogue film. She has an MFA in Film Production from Concordia University and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Alberta. Her multiple award-winning short documentaries, experimental films and expanded cinema performances are often process-based and for some she also makes her own 16mm film with handmade silver gelatine emulsion. Most recently her film NIGIQTUQ won Best Short Live Action at imagineNATIVE and will screen tonight at the 6pm screening.
4pm
Opening reception (FREE)
in the odd gallery
Join us for some refreshments and appies and the opening of A video installation by Casey Koyczan.
Curated by Jonny klynkramer
Reception sponsored by
Gallery open for viewing
Saturday, 4:30-6pm and Sunday, 5:30-7pm
Join Casey for a talk about his work Sunday at 11 am at Yukon SOVA.
Ełeghàà ; All At Once
VR / 3D animated short film by Casey Koyczan
This VR / 3D animated short film presents multiple overlapping timelines of Denendeh; the giant animals that roamed the North of the past, the present landscape, and the future infused with technology and habitable orbiting stations for our population as the world rebuilds itself. Inspired by legends, our current climate and society, and tentative future outcomes, this short film asks the question of what our world was, what it is now, and how it might be in the future.
TadO,etła ; Walk In A Circle
digital series by Casey Koyczan
This body of work was created by re-imagining materials from Indigenous culture and Canada’s Arctic as an embodiment of human characteristics and walk cycles within a 3D environment to bring out their spirit.
Drawing inspiration from such mediums and materials as moose/caribou hair tufting, beadwork, hide-tanning and quillwork, these works showcase surreal transformations of how they are interpreted and appreciated. As an artist who has loved these materials since childhood but has not avidly used them in a physical sense, my approach has allowed me to work with them in a completely different way with digital influence and being able to implement physics properties.
“In creating these walk cycles, even though the materials I am working with are digital, I am treating them with the same amount of respect as if they were physical in the real world.”
6pm
OPEN SEASON
Screening sponsor
Observational Film
Jessica Hall, Yukon, Narrative, 3m
Let social theatre rearrange the furniture of your mind.
HOME OF OLD CROW
Kayleen Kyikavichik, Yukon (Emerging), Documentary, 6m
Stunning original photography of the Vuntut Gwitchin territory of northern Yukon is shared with anecdotes on the situations and inspirations for each photo.
NIGIQTUQ (The South Wind)
LindsAy McIntyre, BC, Narrative, 17m
Based on a true story, the film follows an Inuit mother and her daughter as they struggle amidst forced assimilation after being brought from Nunavut to a new life in the South by a Canadian police officer in the 1930s.
Paper Shadows
John Steins, Yukon, Non-narrative, 1m
John Steins’ paper sculpture photographs are displayed as flowing transitions from one to another in a hypnotic sequence which is all the more intriguing with the eerie quality of William Basinski’s soundtrack.
DRAW US IN-AIMEE
Julie Robinson Yukon, Documentary, 4m
Aimee Lien’s ultra ego Curella Deville goes clothes shopping with her friend Cheri in Whitehorse Yukon.
Embodying the undertones that are provoked and married through existing in a racial form, this short film depicts our current relationship with the Climate crisis. Morphing between different levels of power and control, the delusion that we are superior to nature fuels our demise; this is a call to action.
Datrin (Raven)
Douglas Joe, Yukon, Narrative, 5m
Datrin is a fictional story that imagines a world where there is only one last fluent speaker of the Gwitch’n language.
The short depicts a morning in her life and the speaker’s language reality and her hope for the future
DEATH TO THE BIKINI
Justine Gauthier, Quebec, Narrative, 17m
Lili, 10-year-old, rebels when her parents force her to wear a bikini top, even though she has always swam topless.
“Each moment joins the next, a murmuration of starlings exploding out o the rafters of my mind and into the heavens.”
–Sabaa Tahir
HANTUSH-A Fairy Tale
Alexia Tsouni, Greece ,Documentary, 6m
When Israeli bulldozers arrived at her Bedouin village to demolish her home, a 14-year-old Palestine refugee girl Salha called on her flying lamb Hantush to take her somewhere far away...
ASKatin (It Freezes Up)
Charles Atlas Sheppard, Heidi Marion , Yukon (Emerging), Non-narrative, 3m
A brief video poem about the beginning of freeze up.
Mangata
Maja Costa, Germany, Narrative, 16m
Little Alya and her father are crossing the Mediterranean Sea on a boat that takes them from Africa to Europe in search of a safe place to call home. Tragically, the boat sinks. Thanks to Mångata—“the road to the moon”—the rescuers spot little Alya, the sole survivor. Many years later, we find her again as an astronaut on an important lunar mission. In the middle of the mission, a technical communication problem isolates Alya from the base. This is when she has an encounter that teaches her how Mångata, which already saved her life once, will now help her overcome her past trauma.
RIVER
Penny McCann, Ontario, Non-Narrative, 3m
A hand-processed black and white study of the Ottawa River in winter. Commissioned by the Lightproof Film Collective with sound design by Eric Walker.
10 years after her sexual assault Ashley embarks on a journey towards finding alternate meaning for September 7, 2012, a day that for too long has been synonymous with her traumatic experience. After years of working through her pain and this process the question remains – can she attach new memories and meanings to that terrible day?
Content warning: This film deals with themes of sexual assault, suicide, cancer and mental health.
Strangers in The Dark
Jenni Pystynen & Perttu InkilÄ , Finland, Documentary, 15m
Strangers in the dark is an experimental film of how light pollution makes glow-worm’s love life a living hell. Combining different techniques from animation to archive material the film follows a glow-worm’s attempts to find a partner in an environment that is no longer dark at night. The story about light and darkness moves from the scale of planetary to microscopic, from the calmness of nature to a hectic city and from artificial light to the green shimmer of glow-worm’s behind.
Butterfly/Bataplai
Veialu Aila-Unsworth, USA, Documentary, 8m
Raya loves makeup but her family does not. She’s torn between her secret dream of being a makeup artist and her family’s strict religious beliefs. In a nightmare, she receives a profound message from her Papua New Guinean ancestor who encourages her to look at her Indigenous culture for answers.
A Crab in the Pool
Alexandra Myotte, Jean-SÉbastien Hamel, Quebec, Animation, 11m
In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves. A young adolescent, Zoe is a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world. During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.
11PM
STRANGE THINGS DONE
Screening Sponsor
The Indulgence of Viv le Vac
Danny Shaw UK, Animation, 2m
Viv le Vac is a robot vacuum cleaner with an insatiable hunger that soon gets her in trouble
Paragraph 96
Sophie Maresch, Ivana Vlasich Austria, Narrative, 12m
In a patriarchal parallel world where men are the ones who get pregnant, Johanna Klüger (27) and Maximilian Muster (30) are sitting in a court-ordered mediation because she got him pregnant unintentionally.
The red-lipped model lives in the showcase of a women’s clothing boutique on a commercial street. One day, when she meets the new plastic model from the store in front, she is overcome by a dilemma.
HOOKS
Charles Parisé Quebec, Narrative, 9m
A young man finds himself in bed with a companion for the first time while he faces the biggest challenge of his existence... understanding how to undo a bra.
Making Babies
Éric K. Boulianne, Quebec, Narrative, 20m
After many years together, a couple decides to have a baby. Throughout their relentless efforts, the partners try to maintain their love and unity. Making Babies is a minimalist comedy drama that takes a bittersweet look at a couple’s life, with its doubts, its challenges and its resilience.
Content warning: Nudity and adult situations
SATURDAY
2pm
FOR THE KIDS
FREE SCRENING AND FREE POPCORN
A selction of NFB films for kids as well as these Yukon gems
The Sandwich
Salix Madsen, Yukon, Narrative, 2m
A vegetarian sandwich is made?
Dawson City Skateboarding Workshop
Ashley Swinton, Yukon (Emerging), Documentary, 3m
Our 4th year returning to Dawson City to share our love of skateboarding with the community. Youth of all ages joined us over 3 days to learn how to skateboard and have a whole lot of fun while doing it.
QimmiQ of the Klondike
Isaiah Anthony, Yukon, Documnetary, 4m
The history of the rare Qimmiq in the Yukon.
Arctic Song
Germaine Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher & Louise Flaherty, NU, Animation, 7m
In this six-minute short, Inuit artist, storyteller and co-director Germaine Arnattaujuq (Arnaktauyok) depicts Inuit creation stories in all their glory. Arctic Song tells stories of how the land, sea and sky came to be in beautifully rendered animation. Telling traditional Inuit tales from the Iglulik region of Nunavut through song, the film revitalizes ancient knowledge and shares it with future generations.
The Girl with the Red Beret
Janet Perlman, Quebec, Animation 6m
A girl takes a wild ride on the metro in Montreal. Travelling from station to station, she encounters an array of colourful characters in a bizarre musical journey that’s peppered with hilarious and unexpected incidents. This joyful, heartwarming animated film portrays Montreal in all its vitality, creativity and diversity, with plenty of humour and good cheer, to the tune of Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s timeless hit “Complainte pour Ste-Catherine.”
100 Miles
Louis Bodart Quebec, Animation, 1
mAre we there yet? When the kids act up in the back seat, a family road trip gets knocked hilariously off course.
Hedgehog’s Home
Eva Cvijanovic, Animation, 10 min
Yugoslavia, it is a warm and universal tale that reminds us there truly is no place like home.
The Mountain of SGaana,
Christopher Auchter, BC, Animation, 10m
In The Mountain of SGaana, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the spirit world, and the young woman who rescues him. The film brilliantly combines traditional animation with formal elements of Haida art, and is based on a story inspired by a old Haida fable.
3pm
FIRST EYES
at DÄnojÀ Zho Culutral Cebntre
FRont and York Streets
Curated by Gord Grisenthwaite, former Berton House writer in
residence and is nłe?kepmx, a member of the Lytton First Nation.
Some films may contain content not suitable for all. Please read the film descriptions.
Grant me your trust
Isabelle KanapÉ, Quebec, Documentary, 13m
Miliku tshishutshelimunuau follows the journey of a young candidate running in the Pessamit community band council elections. This documentary takes viewers into the community life of Pessamit in summer.
DOUBLE M COUNTRY
Carrie Davis, Quebec, Documentary, 24m
Carrie Davis was part of the child removal system near the end of the Sixties Scoop. With guidance from her uncle Emmett Sack and the community, Carrie reconnects to their land, language, and culture.
Rainbow to turtle island
Robbie Tait Jr, Quebec, Documentary, 6m
This portrait introduces artist Robbie Tait Jr. and demonstrates the transformative power of art. He walks us through his Turtle Island Handbook project which arose from a desire to transmit his culture and family heritage through his drawings. He also addresses the political side of his art through his Rainbow Tears project, inspired by a story about the political prisoner Leonard Peltier.
No More Kîyâm
Lese Skidmore, Alberta, Animation, 5m
Mosom (Grandfather) doesn’t want to start a conflict after being treated unjustly by a medical professional. After a string of funny flashbacks, Granddaughter’s fiery encouragement reminds Mosom of his strength to expect better. Throughout Mosom’s journey, a good doctor shares important facts and reassurance that Indigenous people should expect decent health care.
The Politics
Len Morissette, Manitoba, Narrative, 12m
Lamenting her loss of community, a traveling MÉtis Woman encounters two unknown and bizarre personalities in a lonely bus station.
Katshinau
Julien G. Marcotte, Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush, Quebec, Narrative, 17m
In New France before the British Conquest, Marie, an indigenous slave, serves the local surgeon. Her daily life of household chores is bleak and alienating. The encounter with a young girl she presumes to be her child will give her motivation to undertake radical actions.
6pm
THE CONFLUENCE
screening Sponsor
YUKON MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
CArasoul
Kaeti MacNeil, USA, Animation 3m
An animated surrealist film visualizing temporal, immaterial sensations as spatially material extensions of the body.
VERBUM EXPEDIUMUS (UNFOLD THE WORD)
Tova Krentzman, Yukon, Narrative, 4m
With the ongoing Russian threat, The famous Radar building comes back into operation. This time, using Cold War technology, the team plans to go “under the radar” and defeat the Russians using a special secret...Does this risky method backfire? What are the Russians really thinking about?
Instilling Gwich’in Values
Mary Jane Moses, Yukon, Documentary, 7m
Passing on Gwich’in teachings, knowledge and skills to the youth.
KIN
Marie Hammje, Bruce Thomas Miller,
Agathe Bachellier, Matthew Ingraham Yukon, Documentary, 3m
This experimental short serves as a poignant metaphor for the disconnection between humanity and nature, reminding us of the healing power that nature possesses.
Footnotes
Stephanie Joline, Nova Scotia, Animation, 3m
“Footnotes” is a visually stunning animated short film brought to life by the unique artistic style of Indigenous illustrator Christopher Grant and the evocative words of writer Rebecca Thomas. Content contains references to colonization and the impact on first nations.
Violet Gave Willingly
Claire Sanford Quebec, Documentary, 23m
Violet Gave Willingly immerses us in the colourful and tactile studio and inner life of textile artist Deborah Dumka. An unflinchingly intimate mother-daughter conversation, the film lays bare the continuum and legacy of gender-based discrimination, sexism, and sexual violence. As mother and daughter struggle to give voice to their experiences, power radiates from speaking uncomfortable truths.
Content Warning: This film deals with sexual assault.
RISE
Bridget Farr, Ontario, Non-narrative, 3m
Filmed during an artist’s residency in the Puntarenas region of Costa Rica, Rise flows to the rhythm of dreams. A woman’s soul is awakened by the jungle and begins a journey guided by the wisdom of nature and her soul.
Journey For Vision
Cancan Chu, wenyu wen, China, Documentary, 4m
Two musicians organize an outdoor concert with the intention of providing solace to children who have temporarily lost their sight due to eye surgery.
Your Call Is Important To Us
Romy Boutin St-Pierre, Joe Nadeau, Quebec, Documentary, 8m
Five people call various Canadian government departments in the hope of getting answers to their bureaucratic problems, but are met with rigid institutions full of unconscious biases that arise from systematic discrimination .
LIGHT & Land
Kyath Battie, SK, Non-narrative, 7m
The contrasting topographies in Light and Land disrupt familiar visions of Canadian landscapes so that the specifics of each scene is understood in more complex terms. Lingering somewhere between fantasy and realism, this futuristic documentary underscores atmospheric phenomenon within mysterious environmental incongruence.
Toones
Lisa Buck, Alberta, 5m, Animation
Composers and animators worked in creative pairs to produce short works that were joined together by animated musical bumpers to form a cohesive whole that expresses a wide range of animation and jazz styles, a kind of visual music.
New talking cars can keep you informed on local gossip too.
8:30
DOWN RIVER
Screening Sponsor
Cup of Joe
Dylon Micheal James Klemen-Hurrell, Alberta, Animation, 2m
A bean-shaped man takes a sip of coffee which catapults him into a state of absolute terror.
Yukon Diaries
Florian Bosc, Yukon, NARRATIVE, 4m
A winter morning, in the Yukon, Maxime is late for work...
Zippo Freeze Frame Ending
Mark W. Giles, Yukon (Emerging), Non-narrative, 4m
Aliens! Dogs! Roosters!
An experimental film-essay using video and text.
Estonia On the Siene
Roger GariÉpy, Quebec, Narrative, 6m
A Parisian bus. Its passengers. Evasive glances, polite silence: the well-regulated codes of cohabitation between travelers, confined together for the duration of a journey. Then an incident, a tiny grain of sand, will disrupt this fragile ecosystem. The tension rises and the thin veneer of civility cracks.
A temporal observation of nature, reflecting on the relational: the tethering of animal, earthly and human energies through moments of connection, both calm and chaotic, moving toward a shared future shrouded in uncertainty as the planet warms.
Crushed Between Ocean and Sky
Ella Morton, Ontario, Documentary, 25m
An unexpected event on a tall ship headed for Antarctica incites passengers to reflect on life, death, adventure and irony against the vast ocean backdrop. Crushed Between Ocean and Sky speaks to the transcendence of exploring new places, the power of nature and life’s brutal twists of fate.
Baigal Nuur
Alisi Telengut, Quebec, Animation,9m
In this remarkably tactile animation, Alisi Telengut reimagines the formation of a sacred lake in Siberia and draws connections between an endangered Indigenous language and matters of history, ecology, and humanity.
The Pleasure is all Mine
Vanessa Sandre, Brazil, Narrative, 19m
When 76-year-old Amélia realizes she has never had an orgasm in her life, she becomes determined to have one at any cost.
Content warning: nudity and adult situations
11PM
BEYOND THE AURORA
Shitty Little
Jeff McKay, Takashi Iwasaki, Manitoba, Animation, 7m
This playful, poignant & very memorable 7 min live action-animation shadow play, where humans take from forests whatever they desire - leaving nothing.
In western culture there is no value attributed to nature. It must be taken and shaped into a product for sale to have worth.
A prevalent societal attitude: How a meadow, a marsh, or a small wood “Isn’t doing anything”, and should be, “Made into something”.
Forgive me Father
Mackenzie Smith, Yukon (Emerging), Narrative, 9m
Years after his father is slain in a duel, a young knight returns to challenge his father’s killer.
The Transmogrification of Mx. Vespers
Zach McCann-Armitage, Yukon (Emerging), Non-narrative, 5m
The Transmogrification of Mx. Vespers is an experiment with surrealist aesthetics, a kind of keyless short horror poem. The title is a morbid corruption of the word “transmogrification,” which is to “transform, especially in magical or surprising manner.” But who or what is Mx. Vespers? Pretty sure it doesn’t matter.
The Quiz
Michael Khan, Jesse Khan ,Yukon, (Emerging), Narrative, 12m
Dan Everly wakes up in a forest tied to a tree. A mysterious figure promises that if he answers three simple questions, she will set him free. Short on time, Dan must decide what truths he is willing to tell in order to save his own life or face the consequence of failing the Quiz.
Content Warning: Images of horror
Passing on a message is easy but making sure it is understood can be slightly more complicated.
Winner
Daniel Little, Yukon, Narrative, 13m
A gas station attendant has the luckiest day of his life, but how long will his luck last...
Content Warning: Strong language
THE LOVErs
Joan Vives, Spain, Narrative, 23m
It’s been years since Ovidi disappeared in the sea without a trace. Teresa, his widow, still visits the cave where he was seen for the last time. Ten years later, the lovers will meet again, although not in the way they would have expected.
Content Warning: Content nudity and adult situations
SUNDAY, MARCH 31
11AM
REALITY BITES (FREE)
at YUKON SOVA, UPSTAIRS 4D lab (3RD and Queen)
Working in VR/3d/360 with Casey Koyczan
In association with his installation in the ODD Gallery for the Film Festival, media artist Casey Koyczan will lead a discussion on new technologies and methods of presenting ideas. He will talk about ideas/aesthetic, software, hardware, and the process of creating in new software environments; With clips and images of project files and works in process, he will illustrate the necessary means to create VR projects and their offshoots. Specifically he will touch on:
Hardware:
- Meta Quest 2 / 3 / Airlink
- Rokoko Smartsuit Pro II
- PC / Mac / iPhone / Tablet
- Insta360 / GoPro Max
- Akai / Korg MIDI controllers
- Analog music instruments and effects
Software:
- Blender 3D
- Rokoko Studio / Mixamo
- Gravity Sketch / Tilt Brush / Adobe Medium
- Adobe Premiere / Photoshop / Illustrator
- Ableton Live
- Meta Spark
Casey Koyczan is a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT, that uses various mediums to communicate how culture and technology can grow together in order for us to develop a better understanding of who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. He creates with whatever tools necessary to bring an idea to fruition, and works mostly in sculpture, installation, 3D/VR/AR/360, video, and audio works such as music, soundscapes and film scores.
He is an international artist that has participated in many residencies, exhibits, festivals and collaborations in parts of the world such as Finland, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, The Netherlands, USA, UK and Italy at the Venice Biennale. He is also a musician, producer, filmmaker, actor/narrator, and advocate for future generations of artists and musicians.
He has a Multimedia Production diploma from Lethbridge College, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Thompson Rivers University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Manitoba.
“To create with unrestricted freedom. To make the unrealistic a reality. To imagine environments unbound by the laws of physics. To imagine our people and stories within future generations.”
2PM
ARTISTS IN THE HOUSE
(FREE)
A show and tell with KIAC Artists in Residence.
See some of their work and find out
what they’ve been working on while here in Dawson City.
naakita f.k. (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Tio’Tia:Ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Their audio and video installations tell stories related to changing landscapes, extractive practices and abstract forms of legacy. Their research uses hauntology to explore the impacts of the colonial project on built and natural environments, while imagining possible futures that can be contained in a haunted place. This practice is rooted in creating modes of listening to landscapes and the other-than-human-beings that inhabit them. They have shown their work nationally and internationally at institutions such as MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2012); Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON (2016); Mémoire de l’Avenir, Paris, FR (2019); Videofenster, Cologne, DE (2021); Fonderie Darling, Montreal, QC (2022); and Images Festival, Toronto, ON (2023). They are the 2024 laureate of the Grantham Foundation for the Arts and the Environment’s Grand Prize for Creation.
Nisha Platzer (she/her) is a queer artist and filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada. Drawn to vibrant shades, her films meld sounds and imagery that you can dream and drown in. Nisha’s short film, Vaivén (2020) won the best film award at aluCine Latin Film & Media Arts Festival and competed at festivals worldwide including Raindance, Festival Nouveau Cinéma, FIDBA, and Ji.hlava. She studied at the renowned Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) in Cuba and her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and the National Film Board of Canada. Nisha is a member of Vancouver’s Iris Film Collective, which promotes the creation and sharing of analog film. An alumnus of IDFA Academy, the VIFF mentorship program, and the Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, her work can be found in music videos, narrative, and experimental films. Nisha’s first feature documentary, Back Home, is supported by Telefilm Talent to Watch and was presented at the Docs-in-Progress Canadian Showcase at Cannes Film Festival 2022.
4PM
OUT OF THE COLD
screening sponsor
The Scissors
Katia Kurtness, Quebec, Documentary, 3m
At the sound of cardboard being cut, Annette remembers the first time she cut out animal silhouettes and passes on this talent to her daughter Katia.
Old City new Nicosia
Theo Shaheen-McConnell, Soodabeh Sajadi, Mehmet Ozerenler , Yukon (Emerging), Documentary, 10m
The documentary explores the current state of businesses in regenerated historical areas in the old city of Nicosia. The aim of the documentary is to reflect on the challenges and opportunities that businesses face in these areas through interviews with shop owners, vendors, customers and visitors all of different generations.
Evelyn
Millefiore Clarkes, PEI, Documentary, 16m
EVELYN enters the world of the wise and wry human that is Evelyn Christopher, and offers a little window into what we have lost with all our rushing around. Evelyn Christopher is 94 years old and still grows enough food to give surplus away to neighbours. She comes from a time when time had a different texture. A place where pace was in step with the seasons. She understands the land, the sea, and the air. She doesn’t have much use for the goings on of contemporary society. She is one of the last of her kind, and with her goes a way of being in the world: dirt under your fingernails, chores every morning at dawn, knowing just how to grow a turnip, stacking every stitch of firewood for the lean winter months... there will never be another Evelyn.
Voices Of Thunder
James Qitsualik, William Aglukkaq, Saskia de Wildt, Nunavut, Documentary, 15m
A community-created animated graphic documentary, in which Inuit hunters and elders from the community of Gjoa Haven share how they have been impacted by polar bear management policies in their region over the past two decades.
Polar bear management policies in the last two decades, including a polar bear hunting moratorium, have disproportionately impacted Gjoa Haven compared to other Nunavut communities. For two generations they have hardly been able to practice their tradition of hunting polar bears, as a result of exclusive international pressures and scientific monitoring surveys. Gjoa Haven hunters argue that science could better integrate the knowledge of Inuit themselves and seek recognition for the loss of income, cultural-, and intergenerational knowledge transfer. They want their stories to finally come out - They want their voices of thunder to echo everywhere.
This film was scripted, recorded, drawn and directed by the community members of Gjoa Haven themselves, assisted by a PhD researcher, none of them are professional filmmakers.
The video was produced as part of a Genome Canada polar bear research project; BearWatch.
Project Dad
Camilla Jämting, Norway/Estonia, Documentary, 28m
Camilla’s dad is a pick-up artist who teaches other men how to succeed on Tinder, and who seeks self-development through ice-cold topless walks inspired by Wim Hof. Camilla is an artist and a feminist, and there’s not much she and her father agree on. How can they maintain a strong bond? Content Warning: Contains nudity and references to sexual assault.
7:30
BREAK UP
screeninG sponsor
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Dawson City International Short Film Festival has commissioned
5 short films to be made by Tr’ondËk HwËch’in artists.
The Film Lab project has involved filmmakers (local and non-local) coming to Dawson City to experiment and work on media projects to enhance their craft.
The focus has gravitated toward analogue film processes (8mm and 16mm), and involves the usage of eco-safe developers using local plants.
Particpating artists are Jackie Olsen, Darcy Tara McDiarmid, Jem Titus, Kylie Van Every, and the team of Georgette McLeod and Allison Anderson.
3 of the films will premeire on Sunday Night.
Tabula Rasa
David Curtis, Yukon, Non-Narrative, 1m
They say that rain brings change.
A Bear Called Jesus
Terril Calder, Ontario, Animation 7m
At Aunt Gladys’ funeral, Archer Pechawis’ mom is abducted by rabid bears and converted to fundamentalist Christianity. That night, Archer hears a tap on the window — it’s a bear named Jesus, who has come to apologize for the actions of the rabid bears.
‘A Bear Named Jesus,’ a stop-motion film by Terril Calder, is an allegory for religious interference, with an aching yet humorous look at estrangement and mourning for the loss of someone still living.
Content Warning: References to Colonialism
The Land Speaks NÄn HËnihe
Kylie Van Every, Yukon, Non-narrative, 5m
To truly live is to feel the spirit of the land and know the ancient connection that lives within all of us, that is true balance and healing of the soul.
A DËnÄkÄr Zho Film Lab Project
Every week, two friends born 67 years apart share their life stories in a senior home’s living room. The younger friend convinces the 107-year-old lady to join her in an adventure: a road trip to the se.a
Allison and Bear go hunting for Berries.
In Han with English subtitles.
A DËnÄkÄr Zho Film Lab Project
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Murray Gallant Makes Me a Crow
Nelson MacDonald Nova Scotia, Documentary, 5m
Nova Scotian folk artist and octogenarian Murray Gallant answers some questions about his carvings.
Lyrical Kaleidescope
Jonathan Goyette, Quebec, Non-narrative, 7m
KalEidoscope lyrique is executed in the manner of Riopelle, settling down in front of a blank canvas with the dizziness of not being able to see the final result before it reveals itself, obeying only to the calls of vital impetus and intuition. While Riopelle sculpted paint, the film presents frescoes made from inks, chemicals and natural products applied to 16 and 35 mm film, with the underlying desire to transform experimental and abstract material into a narrative poem paying tribute to the oeuvre of the master.
MIXED MEMORIES reveals the accounts of three luminous women of mixed origin from Black and Indigenous communities as they try to come to terms with their complex identities. Their touching and intimate stories shed light on the trials and tribulations of being of mixed origin and hold out a mirror for us to contemplate our common humanity.
An adventurous rabbit undertakes an enchanted evening escapade through a mysterious forest trail. The rabbit encounters dreaming wolves, and other mischievous animals as he navigates a midnight mushroom garden.
A DËnÄkÄr Zho Film Lab Project
