The National Film Board is withdrawing the Michelle Latimer-directed documentary Inconvenient Indian from all film festivals and distribution after her Indigenous identity claims were called into question last week. Rise Up! Michelle Latimer runs on passion. I don’t want to take away from that, but when I read his article in Indian Country Today, about the history of the Oceti Sakowin Nation and I read the brutalities that have been going on since the 1800s, I had chills down my spine. In response, the filmmaker, who has never provided full details of her claimed Indigenous identity in previous interviews, issued a … It was really empowering to find some of that footage with Russell Means and John Trudell and be able to put it in the film. The TV Junkies: Have you always wanted to direct? We support you.”. Because it got pretty scary there for a while. POV: Tell me about how RISE started. “Well, sure, immediately we see someone dressed in a sombrero, and someone is a Hari Krishna. But I got to connect with a lot of interesting elders who taught me a lot about traditional medicines, beadwork. And I said, “I want to talk to you about your article.” Then that conversation led into another conversation and led into another until I said, “I need to interview you!” Everything just grew and blossomed from there. Support POV Magazine by subscribing today for only $20/year », Point of View Magazine • 392-401 Richmond Street West • Toronto, ON • M5V 3A8 • Canada • (647) 701-8505 • Send us an email, An Eye for Beauty: Lisa Immordino Vreeland Talks ‘Love, Cecil’, The POV Interview: Jack Pettibone Riccobono Talks ‘The Seventh Fire’, The POV Interview: Lisa Rideout Talks ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’, POV Interview: Jesse Wente - First Director of the New Indigenous Screen Office. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is a game-changer for community-based filmmaking. I thought about this family mythology when the story first broke about Michelle Latimer. Michelle Latimer, 2012 (Photo credit–Alan Langford) ... census records, genealogical reports and numerous interviews with native elders, artists … ML: I wrote that line, that voiceover line, because it was something I thought about when I was there. Sign up with your email address to receive the latest reviews, news and interviews. But for me it was a larger exploration of the history of the land, the Sioux people’s relationship to this land, and the Sioux people’s history with the American government. RISE director Michelle Latimer The Indigenous series is inventive, funny, tense, and beautiful, with a cast that is perfect together. POV: What is your relationship like with the host, Sarain Carson-Fox? Michelle Latimer: I studied Theatre Performance and intended to go into performance. When the VICE Canada channel was conceived, RISE was one of his projects that he really wanted to see be made. We have the ability and there’s never been a better time for it. 2015 | 3 min. POV: In Sacred Water there is a lot of talk about dams. No Ordinary Man (Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt) “The story No Ordinary Man tells is one of lost transgender history that’s finally being reclaimed. You’re still coming for our land,’ I kind of wanted that to be the message without being expositional.”. Like “when I call them they will come.” One of the things that was unusual in Standing Rock was that it’s a matriarchal-led movement—but nobody really talks about that. ML: He says you can’t separate the spirituality from the ecology. I didn’t want to label them. ML: My interest in the Sioux area actually started because I read an article that Nick wrote, which encapsulated the fight. We had a shorthand, and I’m really comfortable with verite but it really taught me about myself, about knowing what I want to achieve when I go into a scene. ML: Every day! In interviews, Latimer has said that her father is French-Canadian and that her mother is Algonquin and Métis. Did you learn lots while making the film? We were like, we need to make a moment of this. You have to tell those stories to your grandchildren. VICE’s producers always wanted to make sure that there was enough of a story to support a one-hour film but really I thought there was a lot of leeway and trust. ML: I was approached by Eddy Moretti, one of the chief creative officers of VICE. This is insane. It’s about the people of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation taking a stand against the U.S. government’s attempt to build a pipeline through their ancestral lands. And obviously John Trudell is such an iconic figure for my generation. (Latimer is of Metis and Algonquin heritage). That’s what I think was so exciting. But sometimes we wouldn’t even turn our camera on for half a day because we’d be consulting elders and making sure we had the blessing of the community to move forward. If this was a cathedral or a burial ground or gravesite—you know, granite graves—you would never dig it up. Fate of series based on an Eden Robinson novel was in doubt after the Indigenous heritage of co-creator Michelle Latimer was questioned. Why hasn’t anybody made these films about our history and our civil rights? But now I’m even more of an advocate for Indigenous people needing to tell their own stories. Courtesy of VICE. I thought, “I’m just going to follow this story and if it ends up being a small film about the beginnings of an occupation camp that really doesn’t go anywhere, that’s ok, there’s value in that. There are cultural protocols when you go into our communities that are often not abided by because it’s often not Indigenous people making these films. I feel like there’s an accountability on people in indigenous communities to remember. In fact, the interview quote was from the Globe and Mail. The following interview with Michelle Latimer has been a collaborative effort over the past several months between Ottawa-based Nelson Jack Davis (President & CEO of Makatok Pictures) and myself (see below for our bios). We were invited on a buffalo kill where we literally killed and skinned and drank the blood of the buffalo that was sacrificed: the highest honoured ceremony of the Sioux people. The story, reported by Jorge Barrera and Ka’nhehsi:io Deer, included accusations of exploitation and appropriation by members of the Indigenous community. And that context for me was missing. Trickster Season 2 Director Michelle Latimer has to say? But I actually think that the values are starting to come back because it’s not just Indigenous people that are seeing the effects on the planet. Michelle Latimer explores cultural colonization in Inconvenient Indian, a documentary adaptation of Thomas King’s book. Michelle Latimer is a Canadian actress, director, writer, and filmmaker. The Algonquin/Métis filmmaker has two projects among TIFF’s scaled-down 50 film line … POV: In Apache Stronghold there’s a scene with Roger Featherstone and Sarain. It’s exciting to see your people on screen and see what they fought for and to understand how that’s informed today. “When the Woman Warrior at the checkpoint says, ‘Nothing has changed in 150 years, you’re still coming with your guns. Outrage and humour are not mutually exclusive, and Latimer is still amused at some of the outrageous things that ended up in the film. Ecology is a way in for some people to understand why Indigenous people are fighting so hard. I am just so impressed with that resilience and just her… she was just adamant! So much of the other stuff I read focused on the police brutality and that’s a very real aspect of what’s going down there. But I felt something happening. Inconvenient Indian, for me, was like the antithesis of my time in Standing Rock, even though I’m dealing with similar issues thematically.”. “That was my first job,” she recalls, “dressing up as a Metis woman in a wigwam. So, they weren’t the most popular among the Lakota and Dakota. Courtesy of VICE Five months ago, the director of CBC’s Trickster quit the series and saw a documentary pulled from distribution amid questions about whether she really had roots in the Kitigan Zibi nation. Latimer said in the emails that she had believed she had a legitimate connection to Kitigan … Both a requiem for and an honouring of Canada's First Nations, Métis and Inuit women, this short film deconstructs the layers of Canadian nationalism. The Custer/Battle of Little Bighorn re-creation (which actually takes place in Montana) is one. But to make nine in a row, and have the resources to do it that quickly? The teen who discovered her culture at a tourist attraction, is, these days, one of the most prominent voices among Indigenous filmmakers. But also I’d never thought in my lifetime, and this was a sentiment I heard a lot in Standing Rock, that our generation would be asked to step up in a similar way, in a fight that’s even larger than anything AIM ever did or was ever involved in. ML: Yeah he’s amazing; he’s still out, fighting! RISE is technically eight one-hours, but then there’s a ninth version which is…Well, they’re normally 45 minutes for a television one-hour, and then I made another one, a ninth, that’s 68 minutes. We weren’t really learning about our culture in school. Why are you the only person that can tell this story? Because we can offer something that’s different; we can offer insight and something of value. There’s more to the story.” And VICE is amazing! It’s all sorts of people. Reflections on Michelle Latimer and Thomas King’s Inconvenient Indian. Already known for her directing in the resistance doc series Rise, Latimer is represented two-fold at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, with both Inconvenient Indian (Saturday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox) and the six-part CBC-produced miniseries Trickster (two episodes of which are presented in a feature-length presentation at the Lightbox Tuesday). It’s not something to be controlled, but a partnership that you live in balance with. When I graduated Concordia University, I was doing a lot of theater and transitioned to film and television. From the Trail of Tears, to today’s Ipperwash and Oka, he uses mordant humour and sarcasm to pierce through the shaky justifications used to “tame” a continent. Many have compared Trickster to Twin Peaks, a comparison that Latimer, a David Lynch fan, greets with pride. POV: Sacred Water was shown at Sundance. Filmmaker Michelle Latimer speaks about Indigenous ancestry dispute 2021-05-11 - This conversation has been condensed and edited. In response, the filmmaker, who has never provided full details of her claimed Indigenous identity in previous interviews, issued a … Filmmaker Michelle Latimer speaks about Indigenous ancestry dispute 2021-05-11 - This conversation has been condensed and edited. And then I started to dig and realised, oh my god, there’s so much footage! ML: I didn’t know! RISE director Michelle Latimer Courtesy of VICE.. RISE is an extraordinary documentary series, which explores the lives and politics of Indigenous people in Brazil, Canada and the United States. My first union role out of school, I was 20 years old, was … I love being able to intercut his footage with his dad’s archival. But I think there were many moments like that throughout the shooting of these films. So yeah, I heard the stories of AIM. Michelle Latimer: I studied Theatre Performance and intended to go into performance. In our interview, she discusses her ... Update, December 21: This story has been updated to include Michelle Latimer’s resignation from Trickster. I did my first set of moccasins there, sewing them and beading them. She laughs when I suggest sarcastically of the staged massacre (in which the attacking Natives use spears and arrows) that the Lakota Sioux probably had guns in real life (they did). My family is pretty Christianized, my mother’s side of the family anyway.”, Was she typecast as a Metis at Old Fort William? I think it’s because native people don’t demarcate land that way. 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