For Lindsay Monture, recently named the director of the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival, Indigenous narrative sovereignty is key.

She's driven by the concept of Indigenous people taking control over the stories told about them and it's why she's taken on the new role with imagineNATIVE.

Monture is Kanyen'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Six Nations of the Grand River. A graduate from York University with a bachelor of arts in film and media studies, she's worked with several non-profit organizations like the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Maoriland Film Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music and Indigenous Climate Action.

A. Indigenous narrative sovereignty is us reclaiming our stories and telling them in a more authentic way. To me, imagineNATIVE creates a space for nations to come together and to show each other, who we are and where we come from and there's teachings in all of our stories.

I think the physical experience of seeing ourselves on the big screen, you know capturing everybody's time and attention to learn something new or relate to us is very powerful.

There's not too many opportunities where our people get to see ourselves so big like that. I think it's so important for us to be able to to feel that power, the power that we have and who we are and and our story.

A. I think it's in a very good place and it only keeps getting better. Our films, our stories are getting stronger.

We have a lot more influences and mentors than our filmmakers did in the past and I think that they play such a big foundational role in why our stories are being told in such a powerful way.

I'm a mother and I have two little girls who are growing up in a totally different world than I did growing up. They're going to see so much more of themselves reflected back at them than I did.

My girls have a whole library of films that they're going to grow up with and be validated.

The way technology has grown so quickly in the last like 10 years has been insane. Everyone's got a camera on their phone and they're using them and they're telling their stories. That's just social media, but that's one example of how stories are constantly being told, so that's only going to produce more and more strong works as it pertains to Indigenous film.

A. The people who are submitting their films, the key creatives have to be Indigenous. They have to be either the director, producer or writer. We also ask what's your story? What community do you come from?

We kind of dig into that and I think that because we have all Indigenous programmers on the team we do our best to sort through those submissions.

We're talking, working and speaking with community and looking into what their background is, their stories and where they're coming from, it helps give us some direction.

A. The deadliest one I've seen is Rhymes for Young Ghouls by Jeff Barnaby. Right from the beginning, there's audible gasps in the theatre, right from the get-go and right to the very end. There's just so many parts that just shook me to my core. I think that was the most cerebral experience watching an Indigenous film. Even to this day, I'll watch it and I still get goosebumps.

A. Access to financial resources and opportunities. What imagineNATIVE and other Indigenous-led organizations are trying to fix is mentorship opportunities. You know, opportunities to learn from other Indigenous people, have opportunities made for, created by Indigenous people.

We're taking care of our own and and ushering new, stronger works every year. In the last 10 years since the last time I've worked at imagineNATIVE, there's been such a huge growth in the industry and in television and and in our new media arts

The imagineNATIVE film and media arts festival is scheduled from Oct. 17-29. The festival will take place in person in Toronto and online.