7th annual Weeneebeg festival

Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival celebrates youth, elders, new work and partnershipsThe 7th annual Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival will feature 35 films and will be screened in a multitude of venues within Moose Factory and Moosonee, Ontario from Feb. 17-21.

Three shorts and one feature film will be screened. The shorts include: Cynthia Taylor’s “Truly Traditional,” a story of an elderly Cree woman’s 80 years of life dependent on the land; “One River, All Rivers” by Tom E. Lewis, an indigenous Australian homage to an elder’s message about protecting our rivers and, Kate Brascoupe’s “Tuscarora Corn: Ears of Our Forefathers,” an endearing documentary of the Rickard family. The evening’s feature presentation “The Last Walk” by Jean Guillaume Caplan, is a story of rediscovery and the flooding of ancestral lands along the Eastmain River.

Special film presentations of two works-in-progress will be screened during the festival. Shirley Cheechoo’s newest work-in-progress “Sweet Blood” (working title) is a co-presentation with the Moose Cree Health Services and Diabetes Support Group Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. Paul Rickard’s new work-in-progress the “Kidney Transplant Story,” is a co-presentation with Muskeg Media Inc. in partnership with the Weeneebayko Health Ahtuskaywin. This film documents the kidney transplantation process for two patients from the James Bay area.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.