We hope you’ve enjoyed the blogs and photos from the  Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film & Video Festival we’ve posted the past several weeks. Because it is so authentically connected to the region where it’s held; because it is so authentically Native in content and presentation, this Festival stands as a model of how a community-based event can be world-class quality. 

From the screenings at local community centers and the youth workshops, to immersing the guest filmmakers in the Cree culture, Weeneebeg is uniquely, essentially what it claims to be. A film and video festival; an aboriginal film and video festival. Held in sunny, not-so-warm, Moose Factory, Ontario in late winter, when the river is still a road of ice and the snowmobiling is still damn good. 

We conclude our coverage with a few words from Paul Rickard, Executive Director of Weeneebeg, and you will be introduced to the filmmakers themselves. Yep, that’s right, we’re sharing with you short video blogs from the talented folks who create the stuff dreams are made of. Take it away, Paul and company… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

The video blogs were a combination of interview footage that I shot, combined with footage shot by local young filmmakers and members of  Indigenous Culture & Media Innovations (ICMI).  ICMI donated the use of their video equipment to document the festival and we would like to thank Monique Manatch of ICMI for their support and partnership throughout the festival.  Our videographers include Lucas Trapper, Jason L Hunter, Monique Manatch, Catherine Cheechoo-Gull, Ian Skorodin, and myself.  And thanks to the filmmakers for their words and time. 

Meegwetch, 

Paul M. Rickard
Executive Director
Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film & Video Festival

Shirley Cheechoo Video Blog 
Shirley Cheechoo began directing films nine years ago, after working as an actor and playwright of notable plays such as Path with No Moccasins.  She teaches drama workshops to Native youth across Ontario and has founded a touring youth drama company, the Debahjehmujig Theatre Group, which often performs in the Ojibwe language. She has been honored for her work at film festivals throughout North America, including being awarded Best Picture Honors at the 2005 the American Indian Film Festival for Johnny Tootall.  

Brent Wesley Video Blog 
Brent Wesley is a reporter and photographer for the Wawatay News in Canada. He attended Weeneebeg as both a journalist and filmmaker—he worked on the Four Directions Project which screened its film at the Festival this year.

Adam Garnet Jones Video Blog
Adam Garnet Jones is a young Cree/Metis who began making films at age 14. A recent graduate of Ryerson University, he has had his films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Ian Skorodin Video Blog
Ian Skorodin (Choctaw) directed the dramatic feature Tushka, which premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and won Best Feature at the Arizona ZInternational Film Festival. He is currently working on  his next film, Ten Little Indians,  a feature about incarcerated Native Americans.

Ellen Monague Video Blog
Actress and filmmaker Ellen Monague, an Ojibwe from Beausoleil First Nation in Ontario, made her first short documentary in 2004. She now calls Toronto home.

Elizabeth Day Video Blog
Elizabeth Day, director of the short Sunshine, hails from the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota.

Gail Maurice Video Blog
Actress and director Gail Maurice (Metis) is producing her first feature-length documentary, Scream Your Dreams,  about Canadian Aboriginal youth. Her short, Smudge,  premiered in the U.S. at  the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. She has  appeared in a number of Canadian films and television productions, including the lead role in Johnny Greyeyes.

Nadia McLaren Video Blog
Nadia McLaren (Ojibwe) is a visual artist, writer and graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. Muffins for Granny  is her first feature film.

Nanobah Becker Video Blog
Nanobah Becker (Navajo) recently complete her Masters in Fine Arts at Columbia University and is working on her next screenplay, Full.  Her short film, Conversion,  screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Shane Belcourt Video Blog
Metis director and writer Shane Belcourt is a musician, radio host, designer, and entrepreneur whose short, The Squeeze Box,  premiered at the 2005 imagineNATIVE Film Festival. 

Shannon Letandre Video Blog
Shannon Letandre is from the Dauphin River First Nation in Manitoba. After graduating from the University of Winnipeg six years ago, she worked as a researcher on Stolen Generations,  a project documenting the lifes stories of Native adopteess and foster children.