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Montreal, June 20 2011. Today, on the eve of National Aboriginal Peoples’ Day, André Dudemaine, president and cultural activities director, revealed the program for the 21st First Peoples’ Festival. First Peoples’ Festival 2011 is, in short: Three major concerts: one benefit concert and two free open-air concerts at the Loto-Québec stage. It includes events at Place des Festivals, Quartier des Spectacles on the weekend of August 5, 6 and 7 with singing, dancing, demonstrations of traditional arts and crafts, raising a giant tepee and mythic animals, archaeological demonstrations and the official departure of the Caravane amoureuse. This is rounded out by an international film and video competition with 60 titles in competition and 5 exhibitions in the visual arts segment. An academic conference, Regards sur les autochtones des Amériques will include professional meetings for artists and filmmakers. A culinary and gastronomic segment in cooperation with ITHQ will satisfy the most demanding gourmets. Literary activities on the sidelines of the Matshinanu/Nomades exhibition will take place at the Grande bibliothèque. We will launch a guide for discovery of the First Nations in Montreal. Finally, activities will be organised in the two nearby Mohawk communities: Kahnawake and Kanehsatake
First Peoples’ Festival will present three major concerts. The first, in chronological order, will be Arauco, de sève et de sang where the Forestare ensemble will perform the Canadian premiere of the work by contemporary Chilean composer Javier Farias titled Arauco por fuerte, principal y poderosa, a work in eight movements for guitars and double bass, inspired by an epic poem by Alonso de Ercilla (1533-1594); the work is a tribute to the Mapuche people’s resistance against the Spanish invader. Works by Atikamekw composer Pascal Koukouchi Sasseville will round out the program. August 1, at the auditorium of the Grande bibliothèque, tickets on sale from June 26.
Next, we will host major free shows at the Loto-Québec stage, which will be built at Place des Festivals in the Quartier des Spectacles. On Thursday evening, August 4, Anishnabe rapper Samian will present his show Rap Incantations at 8:30 p.m. This show kicks off the First Peoples’ Festival activities at Place des festivals, which will continue throughout the weekend. On Friday evening, August 5, Élisapee Isaac will face the four directions and present a show on the same stage, North-South. A star amidst the stars, the Inuit songstress will shine on brightly.
First Peoples’ Festival is setting up a spectacular installation at Place des festivals, including a giant tepee 100 ft tall, a space reminiscent of traditional pottery where a bonfire will be lit, mythic animals that will roam in irisation in the waterworks, an archaeological sandbox for children, a restaurant space and a screening room in the form of a longhouse. On Friday, August 5 in the afternoon Marc Vella will be on hand with his grand piano to launch the Quebec leg of the caravane amoureuse. On Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7, the famous Boréades de la danse will make the ground move to the sound of the drums while dancers in splendid regalia turn, swoop and swirl in colours and rhythms. In parallel, traditional arts and crafts will have price of place with craftspeople working on the spot.
Montreal producer Ian Boyd has accepted to preside the First Peoples’ Festival 2011 jury. At the official opening night filmgoers will discover La Nouvelle Kahnawake an off-the-wall documentary about the steadfast and die-hard Mohawk community next to Montreal, with an undercurrent of reflections on how the visual world has transformed the image of the Indian. By French filmmakers Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin.
As for feature films, Lénin en Maracaïbo presents a love story between a Wayuu Indigenous woman and a Chavista activist in revolutionary Venezuela; political cinema that avoids the trap of oversimplification; Nuummioq, a Greenland feature film that was a Sundance sensation will finally be screened in Canada: a man with terminal cancer embarks on a last sea voyage with his cousin who is also his best friend; small joys and great distress, an authentic human film. On the documentary side, Children of the Amazon lets us follow the footsteps of a photographer who returns to visit Amerindians he had filmed 15 years earlier; the carefree children had become adults who have to struggle against deforestation of their lands because in the meantime, a highway had brought “progress”. From Mexico, Sylvestre Pantaleon is an engaging look at an old Nahua man who seeks a remedy for his rheumatism from a healer. In the same vein at the other end of North America, Smokin’ Fish follows an Alaskan Tlingit man who seeks to make a fortune and suddenly decides to rebuild the old family smokehouse. But as nothing is simple in life, this young man will need all his optimism to overcome the problems that he faces on his way. Amerindian wisdom and rituals are also subjects for the passionate filmmaker’s eye: among the Huitchol people with Flores en el desierto, the Totonaks with Warriors of the Sun (a spectacular version of the Sundance on its way to extinction before the young generation brought it back to life), amend the Wiwa, Kogui and Arhuaco peoples of Santa Maria (Colombia) with Why do you attack coca? Traditional Inuit knowledge dialogues with modern science in Qapirangajug: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change by Zac Kunuk (Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner). Canadian mining corporations are denounced in Le Business de l’or au Guatemala.
The Uluit, Champions of the North presents women athletes who are also mothers, sisters, teachers, midwives and community organizers. And a special evening at Blue Sunshine (a co-presentation with Fantasia), a retrospective of Mi’gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby’s “gore” movies that will be a sight. Not to overlook the Wapikoni shorts – some of which come from Bolivia.
Maison de la culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce presents two Quebec Amerindian artists: the urban work of Raymond Dupuis, a Malecite artist, in the form of an impressive 90ft mural, echoes Jacques Newashish’s work drawing upon the burnt forest surrounding Wemotaci. Photomontages by Akwiranoron Martin Loft (a Mohawk from Kahnawake) and Chris Bose (a N’laka’pamux from British Columbia) at the Canadian Guild of Crafts depict the theme Travel Guides. The young Mohawk artists at work at the Centre de l’image et de l’estampe de Mirabel present their recent work at Kanehsatake. The Matshinanu/Nomades exhibition will continue at the Grande Bibliothèque until September 25.
An evening of poetry with Joséphine Bacon, Domingo Cisneros and the new voice in First Peoples’ literature, Naomi Fontaine, will be held on August 2 at the auditorium of the Grande bibliothèque. And Amerindian cuisine will be featured at ITHQ with chefs Manuel Kakwa Kurtness and Jorge Bibiano Reyes.
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