imagineNATIVE Announces Feature Films and Documentaries

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Announces Feature Films and Documentaries
Plus
The Witching Hour Program • Industry Series

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, with presenting sponsor Bell Media, announces the Festival’s feature length films and documentaries, the return of The Witching Hour: Late Night Program, and the FREE Industry Series with panels, talks and case studies.

The 16^th imagineNATIVE Festival will present feature length films from October 14-18, 2015 such as Esprit de Corps, a Filipino film about two military cadets in a brutal training camp during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship; The Dead Lands, the first-ever Maori-language action film, starring Lawrence Makoare (The Lord of the Rings) and James Rolleston (Boy); Chasing the Light, a dark comedy by Blackhorse Lowe with comparisons to Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino films; Le Dep, a French film about a young Innu woman held at gunpoint while working at her father’s dépanneur; and The Last Saint, a film with an unapologetic look at gang wars and drug addiction, directed by Rene Naufahu, known for his role in The Matrix trilogy.

imagineNATIVE will also present feature documentaries including the world premiere of Angirattut, Zacharias Kunuk's ground breaking Inuktitut language film intentionally presented without English subtitles; The Price of Peace, which follows the legal battle of Maori activist Tame Iti after the heavily-armed illegal police raid on his community; The Redfern Story, about The National Black Theatre movement in Redfern, a primarily Indigenous neighbourhood in Sydney, at a pivotal time in Australian political history; The Grandfather of All Treaties, telling the story of the Two Row Wampum, the most important diplomatic instrument in Mohawk history recognizing the co-existence between settlers and First Nations; Historias de la Sierra Madre, detailing the struggle of Western Mexico's people under the threat of losing their land and water; and Prison Songs, a musical documentary sharing stories and experiences through songs created by inmates of Berrimah Prison in Northern Australia.

imagineNATIVE will once again present the spine-tingling late night program The Witching Hour on Friday, October 16 which includes: Malsem, which follows a group of friends who decide to investigate the strange night time appearances of an unknown creature; In Search of Laura Fearn, a psychological thriller about a novelist desperately searching for his missing wife; and Unnuap Taarnerpaaffiani (When the Darkness Comes), a Greenlandic horror film about two friends who look for adventure in a house they believe to be haunted.

imagineNATIVE’s Industry Series, presented by the Harold Greenberg Fund, offers FREE panels, case studies and networking events designed to help advance the careers of Festival attendees. imagineNATIVE will gather the most respected industry professionals for events such as Drama on a Dime: Micro Budget Features from the Frontline, The Vital Art of Story Editing, and The Red Books: Indigenous Media Arts Databases aka Indigenous IMDB.

As previously announced imagineNATIVE's Opening Night Gala is Sterlin Harjo's Mekko, and Adam Garnet Jones' Fire Song will screen at the Closing Night Gala. The inaugural Artist Spotlight will celebrate the work of Cherokee filmmaker Heather Rae by screening three of her feature films through the Festival.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world’s largest Indigenous festival showcasing innovation in film, video, audio and digital media. The Festival presents the most compelling and distinctive works from Canada and around the globe, reflecting the diversity of the world’s Indigenous nations and illustrating the vitality and excellence of Native art and culture in contemporary media.

The 16th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be held in Toronto October 14-18, 2015.