Tag Archives: film

National Film Board of Canada-Aboriginal Perspectives

A collection of aboriginal  films and lessons based around the themes: the arts, cinema and representation, colonialism and racism, indigenous knowledge, sovereignty and resistance and youth.  It is geared towards high school students and upper elementary school students and teachers.  The arts theme the film clips an inuit stone carver, a Wendat artist and a Maliseet painter reflect on the role of art; a wood carver descended from the Haida and a Mi’kmaq painter talk about their sources of inspiration.

 

http://www3.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?mode=home&language=english

 

Module 4 Post 1

The Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC

This link http://anthfilm.anth.ubc.ca/index.html takes you to the website of the ethnographic film unit at UBC. Situated in the department of Anthropology, it undertakes research and film production from the perspectives of anthropologists, filmmakers, students, and community members (I assume at least some of whom are aboriginal, based on the topics of their films).

Many of their films and related curriculum packages have First Nations themes and topics. These resources are available for sale on their site.

Module 1 post 4

Module 3, Post 4 – ImagineNATIVE

The Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival aims to eliminate stereotypical notions of Indigenous peoples by encouraging First Nations youths to use different media to tell their stories. I first stumbled upon this article which spoke about the various topics this project addresses, such as aboriginal identity, education, language and racism. The organization is visiting small communities in Canada and offering workshops to the youths on how to use tablets to record and edit their film. This CBC Yukon video explains the project. What I liked about it was that non-aboriginal students are also involved in the project because they feel it’s important to address the inequality problems.

Wanting to learn more about it, I found the organization’s website. I found this site a bit difficult to navigate in searching for video entries, and was only able to view one. However, the site contains information on previous festival, the organization, and its history.

This resource can be useful for someone looking to find ways, using media and technology, to help indigenous peoples express what they are feeling and educate the world about their culture.

Module 3, Post 2 – Youth Productions

I really enjoyed the videos that we watched in this module. I love the idea of youth being able to explore their culture and create something that can be shown to a wide audience. I wanted to see what organizations were out there to support these types of endeavours.

This website is based in the United States but their Resources Section contains links to a whole bunch of other organizations in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
http://filmcatalog.nmai.si.edu/organization/5/

I’ve just featured two of the organizations below, otherwise I would just be reproducing the page.
Going M.I.L.E.S. (motivate, inspire, lead, empower, succeed) promotes positive artistic environments for Aboriginal youth. They have a mentorship program with Aboriginal artists and they promote a variety of the arts, including traditional Aboriginal arts.
http://www.goingmiles.org/

This organization travels around Quebec with their film making equipment to engage youth and help develop media skills as well as positive life skills. Their mission is to help combat isolation and suicide while helping to develop artistic and technical skills while using the creations to help bring awareness to Aboriginal issues.
http://www.wapikoni.ca/home

Catherine

Module 1.2 – Aboriginal Perspectives

This site houses 71 films grouped under 7 themes: the arts, film and representation, colonialism and racism, indigenous knowledge, history and origins, sovereignty and resistance, and youth.  This project was created to acknowledge Aboriginal film and its filmmakers and assist educators in teaching about the Aboriginal people. What I really like about this site is that not only does it provide teachers with a rich online resource of films and documentaries, it also provides teachers with lesson plans and unit guides for each theme.  The reason this is provided is to bring an accurate awareness and understanding of the Aboriginal People with no stereotypes.
http://www3.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?mode=home&language=english