MEDIA RELEASE

October 29, 2011

Vancouver, BC

VANCOUVER INDIGENOUS MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

November 10-13, 2011 Vancouver, BC

The Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival (VIMAF) Hosted By W2 Community Media Arts Society is proud to present it’s first Inaugural Film Festival November 10-13, 2011 at the historical Woodwards Building in conjunction with Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the National Film Board (NFB).

The Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival is a multi-theatres & digital storytelling & live presentations forum, performances, panel & feast for all people to celebrate and enjoy Indigenous culture. Vancouver’s only Aboriginal Media Arts Festival, VIMAF will screen works in shorts, experimental, documentaries, video art, animation, as well as feature length films.
Our goal is to screen film and media arts from across Turtle Island from emerging and established media makers to a broad based audience. Vancouver is also home to many First Nations People from across Canada, thus creating a dynamic site for an urban community.
The philosophy of the collective is one of cultural autonomy in media production and to stimulate a critical awareness and analysis to socio-political histories. We seek to contribute to the cultural discourse in independent production and to disseminate Indigenous production.
Our Featured Guest Speaker is premier ‘Hip-Hop photographer in America’ Ernie Paniccioli, Author of Who Shot Ya? – Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography (Harper Collins 2002 – ISBN 0-06-621168-9). Paniccioli first made his foray into the culture in 1973 when he began capturing the ever-present graffiti art dominating New York City. Armed with a 35-millimeter camera, Paniccioli has recorded the entire evolution of Hip Hop. From Grandmaster Flash at the Roxy (a popular Manhattan nightclub of the late 70’s and early 1980s), to the athletic moves of the legendary Rock Steady Crew, to the fresh faces of Queen Latifah, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, and Lauren Hill. Paniccioli has been in the forefront documenting the greatest cultural movement since Rock and Roll in the 1950s. A true renaissance man, Paniccioli is also a painter, public speaker, and historian.
Featured Films Include: ‘Two Indians Talking’ Drama by Sarah McIntrye, ‘Music Is Medicine’ Documentary of Derek Miller by M Rusheleau, ‘Wapos Bay’ by M and D Jackson, ‘The Other Side Of Hip Hop’ by E. Paniccioli and an evening of Aboriginal Music Videos as well as various Shorts, Panel Discussions and Multi-Media presentations.

Fore More Information & Media Inquiries Please Contact:

ThinkNDN Entertainment

Suzette Amaya

T: 604.779.5667

E: thinkndn@gmail.com

Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Society – W2 Community Media Arts Society
250-111 West Hastings Street – Vancouver, BC V6B 1H4

T: 604.989.0270 E: vimaf.2011@gmail.com

  Twitter: @VIMAF  @W2MediaCafe

Website: www.vimaf.com

Three women, selected by NIMAC will work as a group under the supervision of mentor Heidi Phillips to produce the work, which will be presented at the Edmonton Youth Forum organized by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (700 national and international participants), the Canadian Commission for UNESCO annual general meeting (200 participants from all over Canada) and the Paris Youth Forum (thousands of international participants) in the fall of 2011.

The film/video program was created by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the Canada Council for the Arts in association with the Independent Media Arts Alliance. Media arts organizations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Halifax, Toronto, and Montreal will also participate in the program.

Artist talk and presentation of the installation
Thursday, December 9, 2010, at 6 pm

in partnership with NIMAC
(National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition)

Your short film or video will be presented at the Canadian Film Festival program of Aboriginal Artists and about Aboriginal artists, in Podgorica, Montenegro ( Nov.1-3, 2010). Three days of screening of Canadian Contemporary Short Films of Aboriginal Artists in Podgorica, ( Exclusively Cultural Event).

Canadian videos empowered by personal poetic styles and original visions of Canadian Aboriginal Artists /Content of the program is selected based on Aboriginal artistic originality as well as the strong presence of Canadian content/.

I am working as an Independent Media Arts curator and concept originator for the program, in Europe, Podgorica, Montenegro, November 1-3, 2010, for the third year. This affirmative program titled as “Canadian Contemporary Independent Short Films of Aboriginal Artists” was initiated by Embassy of Canada in Belgrade.

If you are interested to show your film, please send me, as soon as possible before September 1st, 2010.

A.
To my email : nena_toth@rogers.com
Short description of your film.
Photo from the film.
Your bio, photo and resume

Please, before 1st of September, 2010.

You can also bring DVD-s to SAW Video to Ariel or Penny if it is more convenient for you.

B.
OR
2 copies of DVD-s, as soon as possible, send by regular mail.
Address:
Nena Toth
Independent Media Arts curator
Nena Film Verite Productions
1711-400 Slater Street
Ottawa , ON .
K1R 7S7
If you have any questions, please contact me here in Ottawa, by phone, 613-594-8458 , 613-261-0841 cell, before September 7th, 2010..

When I get back from Europe at the middle of November I will contact you again and give/send you all documentations from this affirmative program happening in Montenegro from November 1-3, 2010.

Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Prof. Nena Toth, M.F.A.
Media Arts Curator and Concept Originator
nena_toth@rogers.com

(In conjunction with Mayworks

Festival of Labour and The Arts)

Two Nights Only !

*Wed. & Thurs. May 5 & 6 / 7:00 PM

THE CINEMATHEQUE,

100 Arthur St.

In Kahnawake, the hometown of Mohawk director Tracey Deer (Mohawk Girls), there are two unspoken rules: Don’t marry a non-Native, and never, ever have a child with a non-Native. In a community where tribal membership rests on the equivocal measurement of blood quantum (literally the measurement of blood “purity”), following one’s heart requires risking one’s Mohawk status, as well as one’s family and community.

With warmth, intelligence and humor, director Tracey Deer turns her camera on her own family and the lives of four proud Mohawk women deeply impacted by racism and prejudice rooted in Canada’s highly discriminatory 1876 Indian Act, and exacerbated by lingering preconceptions about blood quantum that have left a divisive legacy in her community. It is a candid and engrossing work about the pain, confusion, and frustration suffered by many First Nations women, but also a testament to the triumph of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Dave Barber

Cinematheque Programmer

Winnipeg Film Group

204-925-3453

304-100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, MB

R3B 1H3

Organized by the Canada Council for the Arts, in partnership with Manitoba Arts Council.

• Bring your lunch
• Maximum 25 spaces
• first come, first seated

Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Time: 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Location: Manitoba Arts Council – Main Boardroom

This year, the Institute will have two sessions with different visiting artist and curator faculty during each session. Plug In invites applications for participants who will work collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment based upon their own interests and projects, as well as by exploring and aligning their work with collaborative or group activities which will be planned during the session.

Plug In is pleased to announce that the faculty for Session 1 will be Postcommodity. Postcommodity is a contemporary American Indian artist collective comprised of Raven Chacon (Navajo), Kade L. Twist (Cherokee), Nathan Young (Delaware/Kiowa/Pawnee) and Steven Yazzie (Laguna/Navajo) that was founded in 2007. Postcommodity combines their intertribal Indigenous worldview with interdisciplinary actions and conceptual art practice as a means to engage in Indigenous human rights advocacy and decolonize the geographies and discourse of the Western Hemisphere. Postcommodity is a proud descendent of the American Indian self-determination movement that seeks to contribute to the larger postcolonial Indigenous narrative of social, cultural, political and economic perseverance.

Session 1 will run from May 25 to June 11 (inclusive) and will be structured around the participation of visiting artists/faculty Postcommodity, visiting curator Candice Hopkins (Ottawa), curator-in-residence Jenny Western and Institute Director Anthony Kiendl. Visiting guest curators will also include Lee-Ann Martin (Ottawa) and Steve Loft (Toronto).

Both sessions will feature these artists and curators playing a leadership role in an open studio environment with approximately 8 other participants who have submitted applications.

Deadline for applications for both sessions is April 6, 2010 (postmarked). You may download applications by following the link at: www.plugin.org.

Synopsis and Curriculum

Operating on the basis of a centre for artistic research, Plug In ICA’s Summer Institute: Session 1 will offer a program for self-directed individual research, undertaken in a collegial group context. Visiting artists Postcommodity will be undertaking research towards the production of a new artwork to be presented by Plug In in 2011. Curator Candice Hopkins and Jenny Western will be resident for most of the Session, with visits and a presentation by visiting curators Lee-Ann Martin, Steve Loft rounding out the session. Opportunities for re?ection, creation and social interaction will highlight the Session.

The Summer Institute will take place at 286 McDermot Avenue as well as artist studios, cinemas, parks, libraries, bars and cafes and will be composed of three weeks of combined practice and seminar/workshop based sessions that will explore a wide variety of creative practices.

The Summer Institute is aimed at emerging and mid career practitioners — and university/college Masters level or post-graduate participants — or equivalent — who will come together to form a cultural mass of experimentation in creative learning and practice. Everyone is welcome to apply.

Participants from the ?elds of art, art history, fashion, dance, literature, architecture, curating, theatre, science & visual arts are encouraged to submit one page proposal for their own work to be undertaken during this session, bearing in mind the opportunity to also collaborate with others within the context of being a co-participant among up to eight other applicants and faculty.

Fees, Accommodations, facilties

A tuition of $295 + taxes is due upon the ?rst day of each session for all accepted participants. There is no application fee. Up to eight participants will be accepted in each session.

Participants will be provided with space to work at Plug In’s facilities. Facilities will be accessible generally from 9 am to 10 pm Monday to Friday, with variable hours on weekends. Participants may attend according to their own schedules, however, to ensure genuinely collaborative opportunities, participants will be expected to make Plug In their primary site of work during the Session. While attendance is not compulsory, those applicants who do not expect to be available most of the time should consider not applying until they can contribute most of their time to this opportunity.

Accommodations are available for the Summer Institute this year at the University of Winnipeg campus.

Conveniently located several blocks west of Plug In ICA, McFeetors Hall offers artists individual rooms for only $585 for one month.
Built on the north-east side of the University of Winnipeg’s Furby/Langside Campus, McFeetors Hall offers new, modern dorm-style units with individual washrooms. The units are close to transit, shopping, restaurants and entertainment.

McFeetors hall models a range of leading edge environmental technologies to foster sustainability and energy ef?ciency, including:

* Fully air-conditioned units
Wireless internet in student lounges
Electronic, monitored security systems.
On site SmartCard technology, energyStar laundry facilities.
Communal kitchens on each ?oor with stove, dishwasher, microwave and fridge
Well equiped communal space with television, vending machines and gaming entertainment
Diversity Meal Services are also available for an additional fee

Foreign residents are responsible for their own health and travel insurance. All material, travel and other costs will be the responsibility of the participants.

Program and details are subject to change without notice.

Applications:

All applications must consist of the following:

* Application form
* One-page proposal of work or research to be undertaken during the session
* Curriculum vitae
* Support material (up to 20 JPEG images, DVDs, printer matter, etc.)
* Self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of materials.

(Materials from successful applicants will be kept for our ?les). Sorry, e-mail applications are not accepted. For more information please contact: info@plugin.org.

Faculty bios

Raven Chacon (born Fort De?ance, Navajo Nation, Arizona, United States, 1977) is an American composer and artist. He is known for being a composer of chamber music as well as being a solo performer of experimental noise music. As an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, he is also one of the few American Indian classical composers and educators of “New Native Art.”

Chacon has recorded many works for classical and electronic instruments and ensembles and has had many performances and exhibits of his work across the U.S. as well as Europe and New Zealand. He has received commissions from the University of Mary Washington and the ERGO Ensemble of Toronto.

He has a MFA in Music Composition from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, and Wadada Leo Smith.

He has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project and is a founding member of the First Nations Composers Initiative (FNCI).

Nathan Young (born 1975, Tahlequah, OK) is a multidisciplinary artist working in the mediums of ?lm, documentary, animation, multi-media installation and experimental and improvised music. Nathan’s ?lmmaking focuses primarily on Health and Social issues in American Indian communities. He recently produced and directed the documentary ?lm, Creating Space: Culture and History in Indian Healthcare, a case study of American Indian healthcare delivery. His feature length screenplay Heavy Metal Indians was selected as a project for the 2007 Sundance Institute’s Native Initiative and received the Honorable Mention prize in the 2

Thursday March 25^th, 2010

Reel Injun

7:30 p.m. (94 mins)

WHAT’S NEXT FOR REEL INJUN

After successful Canadian festival premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival and imagineNATIVE, Reel Injun opened theatrically on February 19 in Toronto at the AMC Yonge and Dundas and in Vancouver at the Tinseltown, distributed by Domino Film.

Media coverage in anticipation of the theatrical premiere has been excellent, with Brian D. Johnson of Maclean’s magazine hailing the film as Reel Injun is “funny and shocking.” Todd Brown of Twitchfilm.net called the film “smart, funny, insightful and hugely entertaining,” with Nowmagazine giving Reel Injun four stars!

U.S. and festival premieres

After an appearance at two Native American film festivals, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana (February 12-21, 2010) and the Palm Springs Native American Film Festival (March 10-14, 2010), Reel Injun will make its official U.S. premiere at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas (March 12-20, 2010). We’ll also hopefully be making a major announcement regarding U.S. distribution of Reel Injun at SXSW – but more about that as we get closer to the premiere!

There’s nothing like opening in your home town. So we’re also thrilled to be having our Montreal premiere at the prestigious International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) (March 18-28, 2010).

From then on, we’ve been booked at a growing list of festivals around the world: the Bradford International Film Festival in the United Kingdom (March 18-28, 2010), the Bermuda International Film Festival (March 19-25, 2010), the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival (March 12-14, 2010),Sapatq’ayn Cinema, the University of Idaho’s annual Native American film festival (March 25-28, 2010) and Wairoa M?ori Film Festival, New Zealand’s premiere M?ori and indigenous film festival (June 4-7, 2010).

Television debuts

In addition to all the theatrical and festival dates, we’re also looking forward to Reel Injun’s television premieres, starting of course with our wonderful co-producer, the Passionate Eye on CBC News Network, at 10 pm ET/PT on March 28, 2010.

Reel Injun is slated to premiere on U.S. TV on PBS this fall, and has also been picked up by APTN, documentary, Knowledge, SRC, ARTV, ARTE in Germany, and AVRO in Holland. Reel Injun is distributed in Europe by Films Transit International.

Stay tuned for more info!

Reel Injun

Check out the trailer at http://www.reelinjunthemovie.com

Click here for an exclusive clip from the documentary.