85 minutes – Drama
Release date: May 13, 2016 (Toronto)
Canadian distributor: Thunderstone Pictures
Fire Song is a universal story about youthful dreams confined by reality, set on the reserve at Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, and Fort William First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. The feature provides a vivid backdrop to the daily turmoil of Shane (Andrew Martin), a gay Anishnaabe teenager struggling to support his family in the aftermath of his sister’s suicide. Determined to take care of his mother (Jennifer Podemski), he is torn between his responsibilities at home and the promise of calling to him from the city. His desire to escape comes to a dramatic boil when his girlfriend (Mary Galloway) demands to be part of his dream life, oblivious to Shane’s secret relationship with David (Harley LeGarde-Beacham). Shane’s vision foresees himself at school in Toronto and David living with him. Meanwhile, David wrestles with the incompatibility of his sexual orientation with his presumed destiny as the successor to his grandmother, a traditional healer and Elder in the community. Fire Song was the winner of the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival and was an Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Reel Out Festival where it was recognized as Best Feature Narrative. This is the first feature from acclaimed director Adam Garnet Jones and the first LGBTQ drama by an Indigenous, two-spirited filmmaker in Canada. |
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