National Canadian Film Day event spotlights Indigenous stories

Wednesday marked the ninth annual National Canadian Film Day (NFCD) hosted by Reel Canada — a charitable organization that aims to celebrate the country through cinema.

The festival is holding free virtual as well as in-person screenings of 150 Canadian films countrywide.

“[When we launched in 2014] we were thrilled we had 70 screenings across the country. We thought that was something. This year we’re looking at more than 1,100 in-person screenings in the country and around the world, in about 50 countries,” said Jack Blum, co-founder and executive director of Reel Canada ahead of the day. “We estimate about 60 to 70,000 Canadians will participate in person,” with many more joining in online this year.

This year, NCFD is spotlighting Indigenous stories, programming over 30 films by or about Indigenous people.

“This year Sharon Quarter, my partner and artistic director, and I just felt there was so much going on in Indigenous film. There’s just this explosion of amazing movies coming out,” said Blum, highlighting a best picture Canadian Screen Award win by the film Beans and multiple nominations for the film Night Raiders — both included in the NFCD lineup.

Introducing new Canadians to Indigenous stories

Reel Canada runs an educational initiative called “Welcome to Canada” for new Canadians, partnering with English-language programs to enhance the learning of the language by watching Canadian films.

“What we do is create English-language learning modules for all of the films we show them. So the students will actually look at several descriptions and they’ll pick the film they want to see, they’ll get lesson plans with the vocabulary, with the storyline, so by the time they see the film — from a language point of view — they’re prepared. And all of it is part of their language learning,” explained Blum.

As an extension of the program, a special screening for new Canadians and English-language learners is held during NFCD, in collaboration with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC).

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 500 newcomers on average attended in-person screenings, usually followed by a Q&A with one of the filmmakers or actors.

“When COVID started, we moved online and found that we could actually reach a national audience of thousands. So we do that now every year with ICC,” said Blum.

This year’s “Welcome to Canada” virtual screening will show the 2018 film The Grizzlies. It’s based on a true story about setting up a youth lacrosse team in the Nunavut community of Kugluktuk, which struggles with one of the highest suicide rates in North America. The film will be followed by an online Q&A with one of the stars, Anna Lambe from Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Lambe tells CityNews being a part of the film’s cast was a transformational experience for her.

“You hear so much negative media around Indigenous peoples and so you internalize those things. Grizzlies was a really great opportunity to be able to look at it from another perspective and to be more understanding … to be gentler to myself and to the people around me that have experienced that trauma and continue to experience that trauma,” she explained. “I was 15 when we shot Grizzlies and it really changed the way that I viewed my own Inuk identity and made me a lot more proud and a lot more happy to be Inuk. So when I say Grizzlies was life changing for me, I mean that in the deepest way.”

She says she is excited to share the film with new Canadians, as Indigenous perspectives are consistently marginalized when discussing Canadian stories.

“The Grizzlies is a good introduction to what is currently happening for us in Nunavut, but this is also something that’s currently happening all across Canada with Indigenous youth facing a higher rates of suicide than other demographics,” she said. “It’s a really great opening door to a whole long history that people can explore and understand and be empathetic of.”

Lambe says it is important for Canada’s newest residents to know and be aware of more than just the superficial image of the country they’re going to call home.

“It’s important that when we look at Canada’s reputation, that we don’t just look at the nice Canadians that always say ‘I’m sorry’ and that love maple syrup,” she said. “It’s really important to really talk about not only the past of colonialism, but the currents of colonialism and the fact that the impacts of colonialism are still very, very much felt within Indigenous communities today and to be able to balance those perspectives and balance those different sides of Canada.”

In addition, Lambe says it is important for people to understand how complicated “Canadian identity” is for Indigenous people and feels the film will give newcomers a sense of the complexity.

“A lot of Indigenous people might not really identify as Canadian. For me personally, I know that within our land claim we are Canadians, but I personally feel like I’m always Inuk first. When I introduce myself, I say ‘hi, my name’s Anna Lambe. I’m an Inuk from Iqaluit. That part of my identity comes first,” she explained. “You might not hear a lot of Indigenous folks calling themselves Canadian and that’s perfectly okay. It’s important to understand how deep of a history that is.”

Blum adds that the Q&A between Lambe and the audience will be both educational and inspirational.

“There’s something really interesting to us about having our oldest Canadians or pre-Canadians interact with our newest Canadians and somewhat introducing the newcomers to the fact that these are the folks that have been around for thousands of years and are really the bedrock of the country and why we’re living here now,” he said.

Lambe feels that a showcase on a platform like NFCD may increase the visibility of Indigenous stories and prompt audience members to seek further education.

“I think it really is such a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for new Canadians, but also lifelong Canadians to be able to get a better understanding of Indigenous peoples in Canada — our stories, our histories — both the good stories and the really difficult ones to watch,” she said. “It might pique some people’s interest to be able to do a bit of a deeper dive into the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada.”