By: Indian country today 6-3-13
In the film Gifts from the Elders, five Anishinaabe youth take a summer to embark on a journey via the stories of their Elders. The youth are taken back to a time when people could live healthily off the land, and they contrast it to the options of today.
“Their stories chronicle the devastating impact that environmental and cultural dispossession had on the flow of knowledge from Elders to youth, and ultimately on the health of their people,” the filmmakers say on the documentary's website.
Written and produced by Chantelle A.M. Richmond and James M. Fortier, an Emmy award–winning Ojibwe filmmaker, the documentary is scheduled for release this summer. Screenings are being held this week in Ontario.
The film screens in Thunder Bay on June 4, Pic River First Nation’s Marathon Theater on June 5, Batchewana First Nation in Sault Ste. Marie on June 7 and in London, Ontario on June 10, the filmmakers said in a release. Screenings start at 6:45 p.m. They are held in collaboration with Confederation College, Western University, the Ojibways of Pic River First Nation and the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways. More information is available at the website for Gifts From the Elders, as well as its Facebook page. See the trailer below.
