Range of Indigenous cinema at TIFF reflects changing film industry
The growing number of In‐ digenous films at the Toronto International Film Festival speaks to the breadth of work in Indige‐ nous cinema both national‐ ly and globally, according to a programmer.
Some 15 Indigenous films will be shown at TIFF, which runs until Sunday: eight by creators from Canada and seven from global creators.
"It's a great privilege, but an incredibly hard task to se‐ lect a small number of films to showcase," said TIFF's in‐ ternational programmer Ja‐ son Ryle, who is Anishinaabe from Lake St. Martin First Na‐ tion in Manitoba.
"We're living in this time that we dreamed about, you know, those first few years of imagineNATIVE, like we were actively seeking stuff and re‐ ally trying to find the work," he said.
Ryle said he's seen a change over the years from films that explore the im‐ pacts of colonization on the present and future to stories that "still come from a very authentic place but don't necessarily foreground those kinds of historical themes."
Now there's an incredible diversity of genre and con‐ tent ranging from family films, action films to ro‐ mance, he said.
Ryle said the first films of Indigenous screen culture were social justice documen‐ taries but as the film commu‐ nity's grown, storytelling has diversified.
The film industry, Ryle said, is realizing the talent In‐ digenous filmmakers have both in front of and behind the screen - and the industry is supporting it more.
Ka Whawhai Tonu (Strug‐ gle Without End)
One Indigenous filmmak‐ er from New Zealand with work at TIFF is looking at a battle between Māori war‐ riors and British colonizers from a Māori perspective.
Michael Jonathan's fea‐ ture Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End), is an account of the 1864 battle of
Ōrākau where a small group of Māori, vastly outnumbered by British soldiers, went to war to defend their families and homeland.
Jonathan, who is Māori (Tainui, Mātaatua, Te Arawa), said he's proud of Ka Whawhai Tonu, a film he's wanted to make since first watching Utu, a 1983 New Zealand war film in Māori and English.
"I'm excited of the differ‐ ent genres and stories that we're discovering as filmmak‐ ers across the world as In‐ digenous people," he said. "I'm buzzing."
Jonathan said what's pro‐ found about his film is that so many of the cast and crew are descendants of the peo‐ ple who fought in the resis‐ tance - his great-great-great grandfather and grandmoth‐ er both participated in the war.
The film is almost entirely in Māori using five dialects. It was important, he said, to prioritize hearing as many Māori accounts as possible about the battle. Jonathan said in talking to elders and tribes, he partnered with them instead of just consult‐ ing them, because for years people have taken informa‐ tion from them without re‐ turning anything.
This time, he said he wanted to do things differ‐ ently, which he said was diffi‐ cult, but he was glad he did it.
He said he hopes Ka Whawhai Tonu inspires emerging filmmakers to cre‐ ate work in their languages.