“November 17 & 18, 2011
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB
Meet at Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall
Register online @ http://waff.ca/ or call us at (204) 774-1375.
Founded in 2002, the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival (WAFF) commits to ensuring that the works of Aboriginal film and video artists are accessible to all.
The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival (WAFF) is the third largest festival in North America dedicated to showcasing the best new Indigenous film and video from across Canada, the U.S. and around the world. WAFF’s wide array of films is complemented by nightly events such as post-screening discussions and receptions as well as informal mixers between artists and audiences.
WAFF is a showcase for Aboriginal video artists and producers from across the world. We make a concerted effort to seek out young Aboriginal talent and showcase their work. We strive to provide training and inspiration for young Aboriginal artists and, at the same time, provide artist talks and panels aimed at the more established film and video artists. The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival is an important community and cultural event, and we are extremely proud of the difference WAFF has made in our community over the past decade.
WAFF is thrilled to announce that renowned filmmaker Chris Eyre is confirmed to attend and participate in WAFF’s 10th Anniversary Festival as a special guest, and will be featured as one of WAFF’s keynote speakers. People magazine has called Chris Eyre, “the preeminent Native American filmmaker of his time” and Geoff Gilmore, Director of the Sundance Film Festival has simply called him, “a great American filmmaker”.
Chris Eyre’s 1998 Smoke Signals became the unofficial visual anthem of Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples everywhere. Chris went on to create more outstanding and award-winning films including Skins (2002), Edge of America (2003), A Thousand Roads (2005) and Imprint (2007). He has also received the highly prestigious Director’s Guild of America Award for outstanding directorial achievement.
Youth Education Days – FREE EVENT FOR ALL YOUTH
Education: Youth Education Days is a 2-day event, and Day 1 is dedicated to providing 7 developmental workshops in a broad cross-section of areas of media arts. The workshops provide youth with skills training, and promote the media arts as a viable career path for Aboriginal youth. The training gives the youth hands-on experience, and also opens the door to seeing a future career for themselves in the film and television industries. The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival is committed to fostering the education of young members of the Aboriginal community, and to furthering the education of young Aboriginal filmmakers.
Day 2 of Youth Education Days is a free event open to all interested youth. WAFF special guests including actors and filmmakers will speak to the youth about their life experiences and their career experiences. A series of films will be screened from WAFF’s Our Stories, Our Identities Aboriginal youth filmmaking project, where 16 youth made their own personal short films about their lives and issues that are important to them. Some of these films will be screened at Youth Education Days with the young filmmakers in attendance to discuss the film themes and their filmmaking experiences. The films cover such topics as foster care, residential school survivors and the inter-generational effects on family members, suicide and substance abuse. Professionals working in the social services area will be present to facilitate discussions on these important issues.”
Download the brochure here.
Submitted by Jasmine Tara, Sponsorship & Marketing Coordinator
Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival
Above photo used with permission from the WAFF website.
