Noticias

Indigenous Love Story Stellar Underway

Exclusive: Principal photogprahy is underway on Stellar, Darlene Naponse’s love story starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Braeden Clarke. The news coincides with National Indigenous Peoples Day. Based on the short story of the same name written by Naponse, the film follows two Indigenous characters in a chance encounter that sets off a cosmic and environmental connection that seeks to restore the past, while bringing hope to the future. Naponse is an Anishinaabe from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek – a First Nations people from northern Ontario, Canada – and is the founder of Baswewe Films. Her previous work has screened at festivals including Sundance and Toronto. Stellar is also produced by Jennifer Weiss of Nice Picture and Paula Devonshire of Devonshire Productions. Co-starring with Tailfeathers and Clarke are Rossif Sutherland, Kc Collins, Rh Thomson, Tina Keeper and Billy Merasty. Pic is financed by Telefilm Canada, The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation,...

Three projects directed by women, three directed or co-directed by those who identify as gender-diverse.

Telefilm Canada on Thursday (August 13) announced 10 Indigenous feature projects that will receive support with an annual $4m through the Indigenous Stream.

Three of the projects are directed by women and three directed or co-directed by those who identify as gender-diverse. The projects range in subject matter from drama to thriller, sci-fi and documentary.

In its fourth year, Telefilm received more than double the amount of applications through the Indigenous Stream compared to its inaugural year. All submissions are evaluated by an external all-Indigenous jury.

“We...

D Films Canadian distributor on Tiff selections from Serendipity Point Films and Distant Horizon

Santa Monica-base Myriad Pictures heads to Afm with slate additions Through Black Spruce and Clara, both of which premiered in Toronto last month.

Kirk D’Amico and his team will launch international sales on Don McKellar’s Through Black Spruce (main picture), which tells of a young First Nations woman whose twin sister sets out to find her after she disappears, forcing a clash between the Northern Ontario community she fled years ago, and Toronto, where she modelled before vanishing.

The drama stars Tanaya Beatty, Brandon Oakes,...

Future scholars of the Cultural Appropriation Wars of the late 2010s are going to find a lot to talk about with Don McKellar’s “Through Black Spruce,” a film produced by a Cree woman (Tina Keeper) and directed by a white Canadian man that deals explicitly with sexism and Indigenous issues, and is based on a book by novelist Joseph Boyden whose own First Nations identity has recently come under dispute. More casual viewers, however, are going to wonder where all that offscreen drama went, and how it can possibly have translated into such low-blood-sugar lethargy. Ostensibly a First Nations riff on the perennially popular missing-girl genre, “Through Black Spruce” is a disengaged slog that confines its poetry to a title that nonetheless remains appropriate in one key way: The film creaks like it’s made of wood.

The cast, however, appropriately featuring indigenous actors playing the indigenous roles, is not to blame.

Emerging Producer Award renamed Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award.

The Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa) on Tuesday (August 21) announced the nominees for the 2018 Indiescreen Awards, which will kick off the Tiff Industry Conference on September 6.

The Cmpa, which represents the country’s independent producers, also announced that its Emerging Producer Award will be renamed the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award in honour of the producer of Bon Cop Bad Cop and The Trotsky who died last spring.

“This year’s Indiescreen Awards nominees have each made important contributions to the rich fabric of our national cinematic tapestry,” said Cmpa president and CEO Reynolds Mastin.

Toronto -- Tina Keeper ("North of 60"), Don Burnstick, Jennifer Baxter and Blues musician Derek Miller have joined the second season cast of the Canadian TV soap "Cashing In" from Animiki See Digital Productions and Buffalo Gal Pictures.

They join a returning cast for the Aptn half-hour dramedy about a fictional First Nations-run gambling palace in Manitoba that includes Eric Schweig, Wesley French, Karen Holness, Glen Gould and Sarah Podemski.

The comic series has found cult status by portraying aboriginal Canadians as sexy and wealthy in a modern casino setting, rather than telling traditional stories in Canada's Great White North.

Vanessa Loewen and Jean du Toit are producing "Cashing In," with Peter Strutt and Phyllis Laing executive producing.

MONTREAL -- Veteran Canadian actress-turned-politician Tina Keeper on Friday was appointed the broadcasting and cultural critic for the opposition Liberal Party of Canada.

Keeper, best known for her star turn as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer on the CBC television drama "North of 60", will serve as the Heritage critic for the Liberals.

Keeper left TV for politics in 2006 when she was elected a member of parliament for Churchill, Manitoba.

As the offical Heritage critic, Keeper will face off in the House of Commons against Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda, a former TV executive and broadcast regulator.