In its 13th year, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the largest festival of its kind in the world. Dedicating its programming to highlighting Indigenous films, music, and other digital projects, imagineNATIVE will offer a five full days of great programming.

The festival kicked off this week with the Opening Night and World Premiere screening of The People of the Kattawapiskak River by Alanis Obomsawin. This film takes us north to the Attiwapiskat First Nation in Ontario where a housing crisis and poverty levels made international headlines. Other films to note include the National Film Board‘s We Were Children, which presents very personal, hearbreaking yet important stories from survivors of residential schools and their families.

This year, their international spotlight will be on the Mapuche Nation. The Mapuche are an indigenous group from Chile, who have been fighting to gain more autonomy and preserve their independence and culture. This international spotlight includes the documentaries Diez Veces Venceremos and Wallmapu. I’ll have more on these documentaries in this program shortly.

Also of note is the Stolen Sisters Digital Initiative (SSDI) an artistic commission and national exhibition of four, one-minute digital works by award-winning Canadian Indigenous filmmakers celebrating and honouring Indigenous women and their contributions as strong, successful and valued members of society. SSDI will be exhibited throughout Toronto’s subway system on more than 300 Pattison Onestop digital subway platform screens, on 254 digital monitors in 33 English language shopping centre display screens across Canada, at the Calgary International Airport, and at the TIFF Bell Lightbox leading up to and during the festival.

Definitely lots to experience at imagineNATIVE this year. Check out the website for full scheduling, event, and ticketing information.