Vaychiletik explores this fierce yet beautiful reality, forged from the dreams of the Mayan people of Mexico.

After experiencing a traumatic event in Igloolik (an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut), Uyarak leaves her community and family in Nunavut to live in Montréal. When Covid-19 lockdowns close off the Canadian Arctic from the rest of the world, Uyarak is further separated from her closest friend, eldest sister, Saqpinak. This screening is supported by CBC.

This film is preceded by "Sunflower Siege Engine" directed by Sky Hopinka. Observation of an important infrastructure in Amazonia: downstream on a cargo boat that brings passengers and goods to the isolated communities in the Peruvian rain forest. Cargo boats form a non-lieu, a space of transition for the travellers taking journeys that can last days, as well as for the Indigenous communities living on the edges of the Amazon River, fighting for the survival of their cultural traditions and struggling to adapt to modernity.

The imagineNATIVE Originals program showcases the creations of up-and-coming filmmakers, developed through imagineNATIVE Institutes' commissioned mentorships and continuous year-round support.

Based on the play of the same name by Kenneth T. Williams, and inspired by true events, Café Daughter is a coming-of-age story about Yvette Wong, a young Chinese Cree girl in 1960s Saskatchewan, who explores and embraces her Cree identity after the passing of her mother. This screening is supported by Telefilm.

WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) explores how children of Indian Residential School survivors — including three generations of director Dr. Jules Koostachin’s own family — are moving beyond the burden of intergenerational trauma and into healing.

The imagineNATIVE Institute welcomes APTN Lumi, along with past participants of the imagineNATIVE + APTN Lumi Web Series Pitch, to the Industry Days stage for the premiere of Tales From the Rez and D dot H. This screening will be followed by a moderated Q&A where the Artists will discuss the motivation behind and the creation of their projects.