Biindigaate takes over downtown Thunder Bay

The fourth annual Biindigaate Indigenous Film Festival not only showcased over 35 Aboriginal films from filmmakers both regionally and internationally, but also featured an art show and concerts at various venues in downtown Thunder Bay.
The festival held Sept. 27-30 at the Paramount Theatre also differed from previous years as having four days of programming instead of three.
“This year is really important,” said the festival’s media coordinator Jamie Monastyrski. “We’re taking over the whole downtown and promoting Indigenous arts.”
On Sept. 27, Definitely Superior Art Gallery in partnership with the festival opened an art show featuring Aboriginal artists from across the region. The art show stayed open to the public for the duration of the film festival.
The festival also featured musical performances, with Robin Ranger and Classic Roots performing during the art show opening. On Sept. 28, the festival’s after party took place at The Foundry, where Nick Sherman of Sioux Lookout and James Burnstick of Winnipeg performed an eclectic mix of folk, indie, and country.
“We also did a live script reading for the first time ever,” Monastyrski said about new additions to this year’s festival.
The live script reading took place on Sept. 30 where students from DFC read lines from a feature-length script written by Metis filmmaker Adam Garnet Jones of Toronto, who was on hand to direct the reading.
The festival also flew in some of the film directors from all over Canada to do a question and answer session with the audience after their film screened. This includes Jeff Dorn for his film “Smoke Traders,” Lisa Jackson for her film “Parkdale,” Jones for his film “Liar,” and Joe Ironstand for his film “Inheritance.”
The festival featured films from some local emerging filmmakers.
Henry Beardy of Sachigo Lake had two films, a short drama and documentary, screen on Sept. 28.
Jason Hunter from Weenusk First Nation had his documentary called “Bannock” screen during the same session. Following the film, Hunter answered some questions from the audience.
“I only had a week to shoot and edit the documentary, so it was really fast paced,” he said after being asked how long it took him to complete the film. “Bannock” was done as a project while he was a film student at Confederation College in Thunder Bay.
Hunter also gave young and upcoming filmmakers some advice: “Keep going at it and don’t give up. Since 2006, I’ve been going at it and it takes a lot of hard work and sleepless nights. Just put your heart and soul into it and love what you’re doing.”
Monastyrski said the community of Thunder Bay has been responding positively with the Biindigaate Film Festival every year with more sponsors, more films and higher attendance.
“There’s something for everybody,” he said. “Hard hitting documentaries, touching feature length dramas, animation and experimental films, and the community and sponsors really came out to support us this year.”
“The festival’s committee is getting bigger every year and the amount of films being submitted is getting larger and larger, so it’s difficult but rewarding for the selection committee to select the films that are in the festival,” Monastyrski said.
For Biindigaate it’s been another successful year and Monastyrski said they are already looking forward to the fifth annual festival.
“Highlighting regional, Indigenous artists both film, visual and music is pretty amazing,” he said about the festival.