by MATTHEW HAYS

Aboriginal people have faced a similar struggle as so many other minorities in terms of their onscreen representation. Natives were basically reduced to hostile animal status in so many Westerns, or were noble savages, or were benevolent sidekicks (think Tonto).

Organizers of Montreal's First People's Festival are only too aware of this, and have worked tirelessly for 14 years to create a worthy antidote to so many of the damaging and painful misrepresentations.

The result is magnificent: this year's event features much more than film screenings, including an exhibition of Nunavik art curated by internationally renowned ethnologist Bernard Saladin d'Anglure, a musical performance, Destins croisés, by the Orchestre métropolitain du Grand Montréal, and the cabaret-style show Rez, White and Blues, to be held at the Lion d'Or.

Perhaps most noteworthy in the film lineup is the retrospective of Chris Eyre, a Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker whose work clearly warrants this attention. His '97 feature Smoke Signals was a personal favourite of mine, a beautifully acted ode to the unusual friendship between two young native men. This is a wonderful film, for those who missed it I warmly recommend that you take this opportunity to see it now. It features the marvellous performances of Evan Adams, Adam Beach, Gary Farmer and Tantoo Cardinal (in other words, some of the best aboriginal thespian talent in Canada) and is based on the short stories of Sherman Alexie. Other Eyre films to be screened include A Thief of Time, Skins, Skinwalkers and his latest, Edge of America, about an African-American basketball coach who gets assigned to lead a Navajo girls' team to victory (the film played to great praise at Sundance in January).

Another highlight comes with On the Corner, one of the most talked about Canadian features this year, about a hardened young native woman who tries to make a new life for herself in Vancouver after leaving the reserve life behind. Her struggle is made all the more difficult when her younger brother arrives and she must work to keep him safe from the dangerous milieu of the Vancouver underworld.

Montreal's First Peoples' Festival screens from today, June 10, until June 21. Info: 963-VUES or www.nativelynx.qc.ca

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