Event Schedule

A Mother’s Love is resilient, strong and determined. It transcends physical boundaries. It finds a village, shared among sisters and aunties, and it does it on its own. This program honors the ways motherhood can exist. This is an online exclusive shorts program. Films: istén:'a (mother), The Sky Is Very Pretty, Entre Nous Locataires (Between Us Tenants), Babanil, AYKUO, NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind) and He Karu, He Taringa.

A whimsical trek through the woods, connecting with and standing up for the earth, reconnecting with the past and present. This is an online exclusive shorts program. Films: Starlight Sojourn, Ni Wapiten (I see), Follow, Nemi, Rieban - the Fox, The Bull of Cold, HOME, and Whistling Woods.

These stories from Māori filmmakers explore how water, land and breath supports their cultural identity as they navigate hostile spaces. This is an online exclusive shorts program. Films: He Pounamu Ko Āu, Whirlflow and No Māori Allowed.

Coming of age, uplifting the inherent divine connection to land, and falling back on ancestral knowledge. Matriarchs in the Making captures the strength of women upholding generational power and breaking cycles. This is an online exclusive shorts program. The films included in this program are: Can I Love You?, Nisihkason Lex, Gabriela, Belonging and Our Grandmother The Inlet.

Navigating a world of misconceptions around race, sexual and gender identities can be tough, but becomes a lot easier when we can ground ourselves proudly in who we are. This is an online exclusive shorts program. The films included in this program are: Headdress, The Mainland and Dear Kin.

Technological futurisms, mythological, supernatural, macabre encounters - these shorts will give you a twisted sense of the world as we know it. This is an online exclusive shorts program. Films: Memories, Dear Dear Stephen King, instead of using Indian Burial Grounds in your books, have you thought of using European Burial Grounds?, N'xaxaitkw, Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs in Their Limpias?, Skádja, Unborn Biru and CU-CKOO.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Big hair, big fashion, make-up, dance, drag, vogue, catwalk. Whatever way you werk it, you’ll leave grandma screaming “That’s My Baby!”

In Inky Pinky Ponky, co-directors Damon Fepulea’i and Ramon Te Wake form a portrait of hope, pride, and persistence in the face of intolerance. Anchored on a magnetic performance by Faletau-Prescott, Te Wake and Fepulea’i bring us into Lisa’s world, a reality of pain and joy, and show that the latter will always win out.

Compelling experimental shorts that weave soundscapes with the evolution, formation and connection to land and water.

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.

In this documentary, Mexican Tzotzil director Xun Sero confronts his past with honesty, understanding and forgiveness.

A large part of the human experience is learning how to deal with the multitude of ways we can experience and process grief. Whether the grief is deep and spiritual, steeped in love, cultural, physical, sudden or anticipated, learning to embrace loss is a life skill.