First place for first people

>> Montreal’s aboriginal film festival is another slam-dunk

by JOANNE LATIMER

It’s another slam-dunk for The First Peoples’ Festival. On the heels of its success last year, this 10-day event delivers a sensational roundup of films from across North America. It helps tremendously that Montrealers haven’t yet felt the first pangs of festival fatigue—timing is everything in fête season, especially in film.

With relatively fresh eyes and good vibes from last year, audiences will learn, humbly, from a wellspring of Canadian films like Honour of the Crown, by Tom Radford; three new episodes from the NFB series Finding Our Talk; Jeff Dorn’s Behind the Wheel; The Frozen Infection, by Joel Montanez; Red Run, by Murray Jurak and Kem Murch’s Our Healing Journey.

She got game

For a basketball film that rivals, if not surpasses, the intensity of Hoop Dreams, see Rocks With Wings. It’s a sensational documentary about a Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico in the ’80s. While the film focuses on the impact of a young black coach on the girls’ high school basketball team, and their rivalry with the neighbouring white team from Kirtland, director Rick Derby casually explains a lot about Navajo culture. Intermixed with the gripping basketball drama is an explanation of the curious “spirit line” in Navajo blankets and discussions about the girls’ apparent lack of competitive drive.

Coach Jerry Richardson couldn’t understand why the girls playing for the Lady Chieftans were okay with failure. As a Type-A achiever, Richardson set about boosting the school team over the course of four years, taking them to state championships. We see the power struggles Richardson had with the older coaches, we see his hardline method of pushing the girls in practice and, surprisingly, we see how his arrogant nature nearly crushed the team at a state tournament. He could be a prick, driving the girls into the sympathetic arms of the assistant coaches, and he wasn’t one for encouraging comments.

Nevertheless, the girls didn’t crumple when faced with Richardson’s brand of tough love and the Lady Chieftans experienced astonishing growth. The entire town rallied behind their ball players, raising spirits and pride above previous levels. Basketball footage from state games is gripping, as is the racial aspect between the town and the coach, while the archival footage of Navajo artisans helps root the film in the area’s rich history.

First peoples’ fiddling

For another excellent documentary, see How the Fiddle Flows, by Greg Coyes. It’s a lively look into the Metis fiddle style and how it made its way into Quebec culture, however unacknowledged that influence may be. Coyes subtly weaves in history about the Metis—called the “love children” of First Nations and European settlers—and how the Scotsmen who came to work for the Hudson Bay Company enriched the area with their fiddles. Step dancing was born, and the Red River Jig became an authentic, local art form.
For a satisfying feature from the U.S., there’s Randy Redroad’s mainstream drama, The Doe Boy. It’s a product of Sundance, where it won the best screenplay last year. It’s about the life of a confused Metis boy with a Cherokee mother and a white father. The boy, called Hunter, has hemophilia. Hunter’s friends call him Doe Boy because he accidentally shot a doe rather than a buck on his first hunting mission with his father.

Hunter’s relationship with his father is rewarding in its complexity. While the director sets us up to hate Hunter’s father for being a redneck who never made it through flight school, we also see the dad’s caring side. The clichés don’t ruin the film.

It’s the Cherokee grandfather who emerges as the crucial role model. Tension between the grandfather and Hunter’s dad couldn’t be more palpable, and realistic. The elderly Cherokee criticizes how white men hunt—“dressing up like a tree and waiting for a deer to walk by”—and these kinds of casual, quiet comments make the film unforgettable. :

First Peoples’ Film Festival screens from June 11–21. Info: 573-8837 or log on to www.nativelynx.qc.ca