NEW IsumaTV Online Film Festival
IsumaTV First Online Film Festival launches March 2nd
Montreal, February 26, 2015 - Isuma Distribution International is proud to announce the IsumaTV First Online Film Festival from March 2nd to April 1st bringing international and remote viewers an exciting and engaging online lineup of indigenous feature films, documentaries and shorts, with two world premieres, a fascinating selection from TIFF Cinematheque, and a showcase collection of 40 Inuit films and videos.
Internationally acclaimed Inuit film director, Zacharias Kunuk, will premiere his two latest documentary films.
My Father's Land looks at Inuit history and modern mining; how new media is used to inform and consult Inuit, leading up to the 2012 Nunavut Impact Review Board Final Public Hearings on Baffinland's $6 billion Mary River proposal to build the world's largest iron mine on Inuit land.
In Coming Home, Zacharias Kunuk follows an Inuit extended family homecoming voyage to a traditional site to celebrate their ancestors' history and life on the land, and to mourn the loss of modern relocation between worlds.
Another exclusive at the festival is an important selection of indigenous cinema presented by TIFF Cinematheque, “TIFF Northern Distribution Tour of First Peoples Cinema: 1500 Nations, One Tradition”. This includes powerful titles like Incident at Restigouche, a 1984 documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling a series of two raids on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation; international films such as Busong (Palawan Fate) by Auraeus Solito, the first film to come from the Palawan island in the Philippines, transcending the border between documentary and fiction; and a series of poignant shorts by Mi’kmaq director Jeff Barnaby.
“We are thrilled to partner with IsumaTV to bring the films of First Peoples Cinema: 1500 Nations, One Tradition to Canada's Northern communities,” said Jesse Wente, Director of Film Programmes, TIFF. “This programme is a celebration of Indigenous art, creation and unity of spirit across nations.”
Films presented by TIFF are only available for streaming in communities connected to an IsumaTV Mediaplayer. This is necessary due to rights restrictions.
IsumaTV Mediaplayers are installed in indigenous communities to create an independent network, allowing some of the most isolated peoples in the world to share media content. The IsumaTV Mediaplayer is designed to allow remote communities to participate equally in a world, driven by media, in their own language and in the immediacy of our times.
Available to worldwide viewers is an exciting selection presented in collaboration with the Government of Nunavut, Department of Culture and Heritage, showcasing 40 Inuit films hosted on IsumaTV, including youth projects, short films and the award winning documentaries.
View the full list of films here.
IsumaTV is a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. It currently carries 5000+ films and videos in more than 70 different languages on 800+ user-controlled channels, representing cultures and media organizations from Canada, and around the world.
