Toronto Animated Image Society honours Aboriginal History Month with screening of WELCOME TO KANATA: a collection of Canadian Aboriginal animated shorts.
Ariel Smith’s curated Welcome to Kanata is not your typical Disney classic.
On Thursday June 18th at 7:00pm, the Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS) will be presenting the Toronto premiere of Welcome to Kanata, a package of contemporary animated films by Canadian Aboriginal filmmakers curated by award-winning filmmaker and Director of the National Indigenous Arts Coalition, Ariel Smith. The screening is co-presented by the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival as part of a celebration for Aboriginal History Month, which takes place each June nationwide.
Welcome to Kanata is a rare and valuable collection of animated portrayals of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people and cultures created by Canadian Aboriginal artists. Initially commissioned for the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the program content ranges dramatically in medium–from stop-motion animation to spray paint animation on a garage door, and in content–examining ‘eskimo’ stereotypes in Sloth, and the rippling legacy after the brutal murder of aboriginal mother Gloria Black Plume in the short film, Spirit of The Bluebird.
The screening will be taking place at Pix Film Gallery space located on Dufferin near Davenport, next to the Toronto Animated Image Society’s new production centre.
Since 1984 The Toronto Animated Image Society has operated year-round as a non-profit artist-run centre dedicated to the promotion of independent animation by offering the space and equipment for creation, research, and development of skills in traditional and experimental animation techniques. Proceeds from screenings and events, including Welcome to Kanata, go directly to the funding of programming, outreach initiatives and affordable equipment for artists and community groups.
Curator Ariel Smith showcases with Welcome to Kanata “the uncensored expression of First Nations, Metis and Inuit artists exemplifies that the colonial nation building project of Canada did not succeed in assimilation or extermination.”
Screening Details:
WELCOME TO KANATA
Thursday, June 18, 2015, 7:00pm |
PIX Film Gallery
1411C Dufferin St.
$7 / $5 TAIS and imagineNATIVE members.
For more information on the Toronto Animated Image Society: www.tais.ca
For more information: Welcome to Kanata Event Page
For questions, contact KierLa Janisse: tais.animation@gmail.com