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Title: |
First Stories: Volume 1 (Home DVD Use Only) |
Publishers: |
Ervin Chartrand |
| Subject: |
Art, Health/Healing/Herbology, Humour, Stereotypes, Traditional Knowledge |
Video Running Time: |
22 minutes |
Grade Level: |
Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Adult Education |
Publication Date: |
2006 |
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| order in Canadian funds click here |
Video Description |
| First Stories: Volume 1 is a compilation DVD produced by the National Film Board of Canada. This DVD contains 4 documentary short films made by Aboriginal filmmakers from Manitoba. They were selected to write and direct their films proposal with the assistance of the NFB, CBC Manitoba, Manitoba Film & Sound and Telefilm Canada. The first film is Patrick Ross directed by Ervin Chartrand. Ross is an ex-convict who learned about First Nations art while he was in lock-down at Stony Mountain Institution. Basically self-taught Ross tells the viewer about his point of view and the importance of art to his life away from street gangs and prison. The next film is Darryl Nepinak's six-minute short called My Indian Name. The Saulteaux man is seeking his personal Indian name and with the assistance of a friend and an Elder he begins to understand the significance of receiving the name and how it connects him to his family and Nation. Apples and Indians is the next 6-minute short documentary filled with humour and profound insight into Aboriginal identity in 21st century Canada. After being told by his second-grade teacher he was just like white people because he is an apple (red on the outside but white on the inside), filmmaker Lorne Olson examines all the terms that can apply to a First Nation person. Using simple props and costume changes he documents the ideas of being an Aboriginal, Indigenous, Indian, Metis, Oji-Cree, halfbreed and so on. He plays with common stereotypes and challenges the viewer to see the inherent racism in the process of naming the Other. In the end Olson learns from an Elder that we are Anishinabe. The final 5-minute short film, Nganawendaanan Nde'ing (I Keep Them in My Heart), examines traditional healing knowledge of Elders as filmmaker Shannon Letandre travels from her Winnipeg home to visit her grandfather at Dauphin River First Nation. Here her grandfather takes her out to the land to pick weekay or sweet flag (Acoris calamus). This popular herbal remedy is useful for a variety of illnesses and Shannon connects to the spiritual knowledge of her ancestors through the simple task of helping her grandfather. The DVD is a powerful experience that showcases the emerging talent of Aboriginal filmmakers in Manitoba. Highly Recommended. |
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