{"id":284012691,"date":"2014-11-26T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T21:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2014\/11\/26\/aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen"},"modified":"2014-11-26T16:14:51","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T22:14:51","slug":"aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2014\/11\/26\/aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen","title":{"rendered":"Aboriginal stories on the big screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival (WAFF) celebrated its 13th year with a red carpet affair as it settled into its new home at the Adam Beach Film Institute (587 Ellice Ave.)<\/p>\n

The four day festival, which took place from Nov. 19 to 23, screened films from around the globe and showcased films from indigenous filmmakers.<\/p>\n

This is the first year the festival has rolled out the red carpet for its opening night, which welcomed Breaking Bad actor Jeremiah Bitsui to the city, who was here for the screening of his new film Drunktown’s Finest.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Sarah Petz\nBreaking Bad actor Jeremiah Bitsui taking photos during the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival's youth education day at the Adam Beach Film Institute ( (587 Ellice Ave.) on Nov. 19, 2014.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

“We want to make a statement, and I think this is the best way to do it,” said Coleen Rajotte, director of the festival.<\/p>\n

“We want to grab people’s attention and what better way than to shut down a lane and roll out a red carpet, light it all up. We’re making a big announcement that aboriginal filmmakers are here to stay.”<\/p>\n

Bitsui was also in attendance for the festival’s youth education day on Nov. 19, which brought in over 300 students from across the city to learn about filmmaking. The actor spent close to half an hour taking photos with students and fans.<\/p>\n

“If you’re an actor, you’re going to have to be in front of cameras, you’re going to have to be in front of people. So I think naturally, you almost have to like people. I’m a people person, I love taking photos with you guys. I think it’s an honour that you want me on your cellphone,” he said.<\/p>\n

Actor Adam Beach was also a fixture at this year’s festival, where he taught a workshop on acting and attended the 20th anniversary screening of one of his first films, Dance Me Outside.
Beach said festivals like WAFF are an important part of reflecting the city’s thriving, vibrant aboriginal community.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Photo\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Photo by Sarah Petz\nFrom left: filmmaker Jim Compton, Breaking Bad actor Jeremiah Bitsui and Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival director Coleen Rajotte take questions ahead of opening night of the festival, Nov. 19, 2014.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

“The stories are very raw and important because they’re stories that no one wants to talk about. They’re stories that we don’t get a lot of insight into, just a couple paragraphs in the news media, and here we get to explore the emotional, human characters that are part of these stories,” he said.<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Cherri Low Horn, who is a member of the Siksika First Nation in Calgary, screened her documentary It Was a Woman, about female sexual abuse perpetrators, at the festival. Being her first film, she said she was happy to be able to showcase it to an indigenous audience, especially since there aren’t many opportunities to do so in her home province.<\/p>\n

“I’m really glad that my film was played in front of an indigenous audience because my biggest thing was, because I’m an indigenous person, I want other indigenous people to give their stories, especially those that might be experiencing some sort of trauma, to promote that people can live past this and have a positive lifestyle even though this has happened,” she said. <\/p>\n

Facebook.com\/TheMetroWPG
Twitter: @MetroWPG<\/em><\/p>

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Photo\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Photo by Sarah Petz\nActor Adam Beach led a workshop on acting during the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival this year.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":177369081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-284012691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival settles into new home","story_tag":"","byline":"","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2014\/11\/26\/aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Aboriginal stories on the big screen","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2014\/11\/26\/aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2014\/11\/26\/aboriginal-stories-on-the-big-screen"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/sp-waff1-nov26+copy.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/sp-waff1-nov26+copy.jpg"},"articleSection":"The Metro","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2014-11-26T21:33:00Z","datePublished":"2014-11-26T21:33:00Z","dateModified":"2014-11-26T22:14:51Z"},"rendered":"