Indigenous Creators Look Beyond Borders
There’s been a blossoming of Indigenous storytelling across the Canadian media landscape in the last few years.
Films such as Aberdeen, Night Raiders, Hey, Viktor! and Blood Quantum join TV projects such as Little Bird, Bones of Crow: The Series and Thunder Bay in shining a light on Indigenous experience from history to horror to comedy.
However, there are so many stories that need telling and imagine what our Indigenous creatives could do if they were able to team up with other Indigenous storytellers across Canada, and the world, to share common experiences as well as introducing audiences to new cultures.
That was the focus of the Indigenous PERSPECTIVES on New Models for Co-Productions panel presented at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Moderated by Telefilm’s Adriana Chartrand, who serves as the agency’s Lead, Indigenous Initiatives and Content Analyst, the panel included Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) CEO Kerry Swanson, Anne Lajla Utsi, CEO of the International Sámi Film Institute based in Norway, and Mitchell Stanley, a Wiradjuri producer based in Brisbane, Australia.
Chartrand pointed out that co-productions are governed by audio-visual treaties decided upon by the federal government and Canada has almost 60 of them; agreements with other countries allowing co-productions.
“Norway has a co-production agreement with Canada,” says Utsi. “There is one specific article in this agreement which both excludes Sami language and for Canada, languages other than French and English. So, that means the audio track of the film must be in either English, French, or Norwegian. So that’s one concrete example of how these national treaties are a challenge.”
“We have been working on this issue for some time,” adds Swanson. “In terms of co-production agreements, it’s a good example of how the barriers for Indigenous creation and production are baked into the language of the bureaucracy. These treaties were established between the nations without any consideration of Indigenous content because at that time Indigenous people were excluded from the industry and so there was not an Indigenous perspective at the table when negotiating these nationalistic treaties.”
“Throughout history a lot has been taken from Indigenous people,” adds Stanley. “And one of the last things that we do have, that we’ve been able to pass down generation to generation is our stories. That is why we’ve been so protective of how they are told. We are in a position now where we get to tell our stories. The perspective now is, no stories about us without us.”
There are examples of how countries can simplify the co-production process, as Utsi explains.
“The Sámi Film Institute supports Sámi filmmakers in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Since we are in these four countries, we are borderless, so even though the funding is mainly from Norway our funding goes to Sámi filmmakers no matter which country they are in.”
The Canada Media Fund took measures earlier this year to ease the problem by introducing flexibility for Indigenous-led projects, including two measures directed at Indigenous creators based in the Circumpolar North.
“The CMF Arctic Indigenous flexibility allows for other Indigenous producers as minority producers in co-productions, which is one step in the right direction and I think that is amazing,” says Utsi.
Telefilm also stepped up this year selecting nine Arctic Indigenous filmmakers for its Witness 2024 film training and mentorship program. Utsi says the filmmakers were excited about the opportunity to make their films.
“These filmmakers from across the Arctic – Canada, Greenland Sámi, and Alaska – are doing very short documentaries about climate change that are all screened together. And the training component is really important.”
Yet Canadian Indigenous creators face the extra barrier of movement, with the industry making it difficult to shoot productions outside of their home province.
“In Canada we also have tax credits that are provincially based,” explains Swanson. “So that’s a problem for productions to have crew from their community if they are shooting in another province. But we have a sector development program that was created to offer training and education, anything to help build the capacity of the Indigenous screen sector. And what we’ve found is a lot of producers access these programs and bring people from their territory to work on their film.”
Swanson cites how that initiative aided actor-turned-director Kaniehtiio Horn while shooting her debut feature, Seeds.
“She comes from Kahnawake in the province of Quebec, and she shot her film in Ontario, and she accessed that training program to bring her people from Kahnawake to the set. And she said that made a huge impact for her as a first-time filmmaker to have her people there. Just to feel that grounding that comes from having your people with you when you are doing something hard and challenging, and you speak that same shared language.”
The panelist passionately agreed about what it means to be able to connect with other Indigenous creators. Not only is there a comfort level in working together but there is a financial incentive.
“This is a real producer thing to say, but you sit in a room full of creators and week one of a story room could cost tens of thousands of dollars,” says Stanley.
“And this is an experience I had on several occasions. When the room is split and you’ve only got a few Indigenous people, if you’ve got five days, two of those five days you’re explaining storylines and why they wouldn’t fit, culturally. Whereas you sit with Indigenous filmmakers or people of colour, you don’t spend two days explaining things.”
The long list of challenges and barriers facing co-productions are slowly falling, one treaty at a time. The film industry and government agencies acknowledge there needs to be changes made and that is happening.
“I do want to say that we’ve seen a really interesting example of this cross-border collaboration between Canada and the US,” says Swanson, “and that is the show Reservation Dogs, which has a huge amount of Canadian talent in front of, and behind, the camera.
“You’ve got a massive budget, a Disney/FX project able to utilize Canadian talent to make this incredible show that we all love. So that is another model. How do we create more of those collaborative opportunities? Otherwise, we are missing the opportunity to make the best work possible.”
Co-productions represent not only the opportunity to create wonderful films and TV shows but are crucial to Indigenous identity.
“Indigenous people, in order to express self-determination and narrative sovereignty need to be able to work with other Indigenous people,” states Swanson.
“And those borders are arbitrary, and they are separating Indigenous people from one another and from working together in a way that makes sense.”
