A Stellar Opening for imagineNATIVE
by Ralph Lucas, Publisher
(September 21, 2022 – Toronto, ON) The 2022 edition of the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, has announced its schedule and the opening is literally Stellar. Costarring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Braeden Clarke & Rossif Sutherland, Stellar is set in Northern Ontario as a meteorite has catastrophically changed the planet. But inside a small bar, two lovers transcend the traumas of one world and find a path to a new one. The feature from writer-director Darlene Naponse (Anishinaabe) explores human notions of connections between oneself, other people, and Mother Earth herself. The Opening Night Gala is on Tuesday, October 18.
When the festival wraps 5 days later on October 23, the Closing Gala feature is Rosie by Gail Maurice (Cree/Métis). The film is about family, love, and misfits, Rosie tells the story of a young, orphaned, Indigenous girl who is forced to live with her reluctant, street-smart Aunty Fred, on the fringes of 1980s Montréal.
With optimism regarding the seemingly weakening COVID pandemic, the festival will have in-person events during the full run of the festival October 18-23, followed by online festival selections becoming available October 24-30, 2022.
imagineNATIVE by the numbers: This year the festival will present over 147 works from 16 countries in over 55 Indigenous languages. Screenings include 19 feature films, 13 thematic shorts programs, nine Digital + Interactive Works, nine audio works, six exhibitions, five music videos, and an artist spotlight on Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist Shelley Niro.
There is more information online.
Also see: October Film Festivals.
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
