Ācimowin Film Festival brings Indigenous cinema to Saskatoon

A new film festival in Saskatoon is showcasing the next generation of Indigenous filmmakers and paying tribute to cinema trailblazers.

The inaugural Ācimowin Film Festival started Wednesday night and runs through Saturday, with screenings and events throughout the city. The festival is showing local and international movies by Indigenous filmmakers — its name, Ācimowin, is Cree for storytelling.

Tristin Greyeyes is the festival's executive director. Originally from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, she is a filmmaker working in Vancouver.

"For so long, non-Indigenous people were telling our stories. And now, we have the tools and the skills and the power to tell our own stories and to uplift our own communities," Greyeyes said.

She's in post-production on her feature-length documentary about her late grandmother who helped revitalize and teach Cree language on the Prairies. 

Greyeyes also programmed other film festivals, which inspired the idea for Ācimowin — a showcase for the next generation of Indigenous filmmakers that also plays tribute to industry veterans.

On Sunday, the festival is honouring Janine Windolph and the late Trudy Stewart, who organized Mispon, the now defunct Indigenous film festival in Regina.

"We wouldn't be here without the past Indigenous filmmakers who paved the way, who broke down barriers, who kicked doors down, to make our own tables," Greyeyes said.

With funding from the Indigenous Screen Office, festival organizers are planning programming and film-related events throughout the year for youth in Saskatchewan.

"With this new generation, a lot of people are using TikTok and they're using these match cuts, these cutaways within that. And those are film editing tools that we use to make our own films," Greyeyes said.

"They're already storytellers. We're already storytellers — traditionally and ancestrally. Nowadays these filmmakers here have used our own traditional stories and incorporated that in their animation, claymation and their horror films."

Rachel Beaulieu, an assistant director with the Winnipeg Indigenous Filmmakers Collective, is originally from Sandy Bay First Nation. Her short film Mémère screens on Friday. 

"I think filmmaking now is more open to Indigenous filmmakers," Beaulieu said. "I know a lot of people before us kind of had struggles with making films or feeling included in creating film.… So now we're taking the initiative to create our films, tell our stories in our own way."

She said that behind the scenes, film festivals are a chance to network for film professionals.

"I want to meet other Indigenous filmmakers and see the submissions coming from around the world," Beaulieu said. "I want to see what people are making from all sides of the world."

The festival opened on Wednesday night with Café Daughter (set in rural Saskatchewan) by Mohawk filmmaker Shelley Niro, while Singing Back the Buffalo by Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard closes out the festival on Saturday night.

Films are screening at the Roxy Theatre, Broadway Theatre and the Remai Art Gallery. The full festival schedule is available online.