Thunderstone Pictures receives Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Short Film at world’s largest indigenous film festival

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Local Film Company receives Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Short Film at world’s largest indigenous film festival

Thunderstone Pictures is pleased to announce that our film “Eagle vs. Sparrow” received an Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2011 imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto earlier this week. In its twelfth year, imagineNATIVE has become the premiere event for indigenous filmmakers worldwide and this year featured over 100 new films from 24 countries. Thunderstone Pictures is an award-winning film production house based in Thunder Bay, ON that specializes in northern storytelling and First Nations drama and documentary works.

“Eagle vs. Sparrow” is a 10-minute dramatic film based on a traditional Anishinawbe legend that was adapted by at-risk high school students working alongside professional filmmakers and artists. It was a collaboration between Thunderstone Pictures, professional artists, the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project (CAHEP), and students and staff from the THRIVE Program at the Dryden High School. It was made in the school working two days a week over a five-week period. Michelle Derosier, the film’s Director who is originally of Migisi Sahgaigan (Eagle Lake) First Nation near Dryden, was pleased to be working on a project near her home community. “This was actually a legend that was told to my uncle Len Gardner Sr. by my great grandfather” said Derosier. “It was traditionally used to teach about humility, one of the seven grandfather teachings”, she added. Mentoring cinematographer and editor, Dave Clement of Thunderstone Pictures noted “The trick was figuring out the key to taking an ancient legend about animals and transforming it into the high school drama. Then one student blurted out ‘What if they are half humans, half animals?’ and we knew we were all on to something that would work as a film”. Clement attribute’s the film’s success to the dedication, creativity and resiliency of the youth who worked on the project. “These kids haven’t had it easy, but they really committed and were there everyday, often before we even got there. These tough, quiet kids donning make-up, leaving their comfort zones and putting so much of their hearts into the performances it made it magical”. He also credits the film’s extraordinary Art Direction, which was beautifully crafted by artists Michelle Coslette-Goodman (of The Night Garden fame) of Dryden and Lila Cano formerly of CAHEP.

The honourable mention was presented to Michelle Derosier by Academy Award nominee and Cannes Camera d’Or winner Zacharias Kunuk, the famed Inuit filmmaker who made “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” and “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen”, at the festival’s closing night gala and awards show. “It was quite a surprise” said Derosier, “I had just spent the whole week watching all these amazing works from all over so when he called my name I thought it was a mistake”.

Thunderstone’s documentary “The Life You Want”, which tells the story of a young mother from Fort Hope and her struggle to overcome her addiction to opiates, was also presented at the 2011 imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.

For more information please contact Michelle Derosier or Dave Clement at 807.683.0671 or email: dave@thunderstonepictures.com

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Press: Battling for life against addiction

Friday September 30, 2011

Lenny Carpenter, Wawatay News

Doris Slipperjack’s battle against prescription drug abuse was featured at the Biindigate Film Festival in Thunder Bay in the world premiere of The Life You Want.

“This was my third time watching this video and it still makes me cry,” said the 22-year-old mother of three after the Sept. 24 screening. “It’s been really rough, actually. But even though I’ve relapsed, I don’t let that stop me from getting back on.”

The 34-minute documentary film was produced by Thunderstone Pictures, the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority and the Sioux Lookout Zone Chief’s Committee on Health to bring attention to the situation facing many families and communities in northern Ontario.

“I feel like I’m fighting a battle within myself,” Slipperjack said in the film. “And that’s a never-ending battle. I thought being high was everything; being high was my world. But it’s not because when I was high I couldn’t even think, I couldn’t even feel.”

The film follows Slipperjack from her home in Eabametoong to a treatment centre near Kenora, where she gets off the prescription drugs for a time but eventually relapses after her mother-in-law passes away.

Slipperjack eventually signed up for a treatment program using Suboxone, a combination medication program that treats adults dependent on opiates such as oxycodone or morphine.

“It’s like a substitute, you know how your mind is always thinking of opiates,” Slipperjack said. “It’s like a blocker; it prevents you from doing. It helped me with the withdrawals at the beginning, but now I’m feeling good.”

Slipperjack has now started up Eabametoong’s first youth council and is doing presentations on addiction in her community and on local radio. She has also been campaigning for a youth centre and a treatment centre in her community.

“I’m finally on my path to what I want to do – help people.”

Press: Return to Manomin an endearing film

Friday September 30, 2011

Lenny Carpenter, Wawatay News

After a day of showing and teaching his niece Michelle Derosier some of the old ways of wild rice harvesting at what the family calls Rice Lake, Uncle Simon sits with the filmmaker in their rustic, old family cabin.

“You guys got to do something,” the 75-year-old says of the rice harvesting. “Revive the whole thing.”

“That’s what I want do, uncle,” Michelle replies. “That’s exactly what I want to do.”
And it’s these attempts to revive that family tradition that are portrayed in Michelle’s 71-minute documentary, Return to Manomin, which premiered Sept. 23 at the Biindigaate Film Festival.

The scene sets up the premise of the film. Realizing they are only a few years away from the complete loss of an ancient tradition, Michelle and four generations of her family struggle to return to their traditional wild rice lake. Guided by the spirits of her Grandmothers and the wisdom of her aging uncle, Michelle attempts to revive her family’s annual manomin (Anishinaabe for wild rice) harvest with hopes of passing on the teachings of her ancestors to her children and grandchildren.

The film opens with some beautiful scenic shots – the work of cinematographer Dave Clement – of Rice Lake with a narrator speaking in Anishinaabe, introducing herself as a “grandmother who has left this world and become a spirit.” She indicates the lack of visits to the lake. Then we are introduced to Michelle, who is driving on her journey to revisit her family history.

The film is divided into three years, and in year one we are introduced to Uncle Simon, who shares his wisdom of the tradition.

“You don’t pick steady everyday,” he says as one of the first tidbits he shares. “You pick for a couple days then let it rest. Ripen, eh.”

As they visit the lake, Uncle Simon says there isn’t as much rice as there used to be. The audience at the screening let out a collective gasp as a shot of the present-day lake cuts to an archival photo of the lake full of wild rice.

The film’s description in the festival program describes the documentary as being of a cinéma-verité style, in which the presence of the filmmaker or camera is made aware – even acknowledged – by the participants and viewers. This is made apparent in a few scenes. In one instance, we hear Michelle asking, “OK, are we rolling?” before she updates the viewers of her journey.

In another scene, Uncle Simon says a prayer, offers tobacco then, as part of the ceremony, passes around a bottle of whiskey to everyone present, including the cameraman, who takes it. The camera even engages the participants at times.

There are no formal interviews either, save for a couple of Michelle updates. Instead, everyone’s statements or interactions are captured candidly, adding that sense of realism and truthfulness to the film.

The film also documents some setbacks in trying to revisit the tradition, be it due to mechanical or environmental factors.

“I’m not sure whether or not it’s going to work,” Michelle tearfully laments to the camera. “Whether or not it’s the right thing to do or whether it’s wishful thinking – to think you can go back.”

And while the film is about reviving a tradition, at the heart of it is family.

“Here, uncle,” says Michelle’s sister Neechi, offering a walking stick to the Elder. It’s subtle moments like this that help make the film a heart-warming story.

While the trip to Rice Lake is a remembrance for the uncle, it’s a discovery for the younger generation. At the advice of the uncle, Michelle brings her daughter MorningStar to the dam up the river leading to the lake.

“We’re not sure what we’re doing,” Michelle says to the camera, “but we’re going to check it out.”

After the harvest, a teenaged cousin admits to almost making up an excuse not to take part.
“But I’m glad I came out,” she says.

The film is also imbued with humour. I won’t spoil anything, but these moments come unexpectedly and perhaps unintentionally by the family members.

The film is underscored by the music composed by Jason Burnstick of Winnipeg and Faye Blais of Sudbury. Burnstick’s folk-blues acoustic work and lap-slide guitar adds a down-to-earth feel to the film, while Blais’ dynamic vocals and jazz-blues music heightens or underscores the drama in certain scenes.

Return to Manomin is a documentary three years in the making, with the past 10 months spent in post-production. While the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council For the Arts and Eagle Lake First Nation initially funded the project, the budget ran out and the film became a labour of love for the filmmakers.

Michelle, who directed the film, was overwhelmed by the response she received. She was moved when a friend said her nine-year-old daughter saw the screening and later asked, “What traditions do we have, mom?”

“Everybody has traditions, and we live in an ever-changing world where it’s easy for the traditions to get lost,” Michelle says. “This was about a lot more than making a film, it was about starting an active process of remembering not only who we are as a family but who we are as a people.”