Christopher Auchter

Last updated

Christopher Auchter is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. [1] He is most noted for his 2019 short film Now Is the Time , which was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Short Documentary at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020. [2]

Contents

Background

A native of Haida Gwaii, he studied media arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and computer animation at Sheridan College. [3] He has also illustrated several books by children's writer Jordan Wheeler.

Career

He worked on the animation teams for the 2009 short film How People Got Fire , the 2009 video game Punch-Out!! and the 2017 television series Coyote's Crazy Smart Science Show, before releasing his own animated short film debut, The Mountain of SGaana, in 2017. [3] Although told without dialogue, the film features music sung in the Haida language by his sister Nikita Auchter. [4]

Now Is the Time premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. [5] Created to mark the 50th anniversary of Haida artist Robert Davidson carving and erecting a totem pole on Haida Gwaii in 1969, the film blends historical footage from Eugene Boyko's 1970 documentary film This Was the Time with contemporary footage, including the now elderly Davidson's own reflections on the historic importance of his project. [5]

He subsequently directed several episodes of the animated Netflix series Not Quite Narwhal.

His feature documentary film debut, The Stand, is slated to premiere at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haida people</span> Indigenous group in British Columbia, Canada

The Haida are an Indigenous group who have traditionally occupied Haida Gwaii, an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.

Robert Charles Davidson, is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage. Davidson's Haida name is G̲uud San Glans, which means "Eagle of the Dawn". He is a leading figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture. He lives in White Rock, British Columbia.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian animated short film. Formerly part of the Genie Awards, since 2012 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

Jeff Chiba Stearns is a Canadian independent animation and documentary filmmaker who works in traditional and computer-based techniques.

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are a Canadian animation duo. On January 24, 2012, they received their second Oscar nomination, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film, Wild Life (2011). With their latest film, The Flying Sailor, they received several nominations and awards, including for the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and on January 24, 2023, they received a nomination for the 95th Academy Awards under the category Best Animated Short Film.

<i>Haida Modern</i> 2019 documentary

Haida Modern is a 2019 Canadian documentary film about the art and activism of Haida artist Robert Davidson. The film was directed by Charles Wilkinson, filmed, produced and edited by Wilkinson and Tina Schliessler and executive produced by Kevin Eastwood. It premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Hart (artist)</span> Canadian sculptor

James Hart is a Canadian and Haida artist and a chief of the Haida Nation.

Charles Wilkinson is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and film and television director. He is best known for making documentaries that touch on environmental issues. These include Haida Modern, Vancouver: No Fixed Address, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, Oil Sands Karaoke, and Peace Out. All five films premiered at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, and have gone on to win awards at Hot Docs, the Vancouver International Film Festival, le Festival International du Film sur l'Art - Artfifa, the DGC Awards, the Leo Awards and the Yorkton Film Festival. Before moving into documentaries, Wilkinson worked for many years in dramatic television series and on feature films. His directing credits include such TV series as The Highlander, The Immortal, So Weird, Dead Man's Gun, Road to Avonlea and The Beachcombers, the feature films My Kind of Town, Max, Blood Clan and Breach of Trust, and the TV movie Heart of the Storm. As a preteen, he was one of the original performers in the Calgary Safety Roundup, paired with his brother Billy as kid cowboy singers. "We sang both kinds - country and western."

<i>Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World</i> 2015 Canadian film

Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World is a 2015 Canadian feature documentary film directed by Charles Wilkinson, and produced by Charles Wilkinson, Tina Schliessler, and Kevin Eastwood for the Knowledge Network. The film premiered on April 28, 2015 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival where it won the award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary.

Amanda Strong is a stop-motion animation filmmaker who resides inVancouver, Canada. She has exhibited work and her films have been screened at festivals worldwide, including Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Strong is Red River Metis and a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation. Michif (Métis).

<i>Edge of the Knife</i> 2018 Haida-language film

Edge of the Knife is a 2018 Canadian drama film co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown. It is the first feature film spoken only in the Haida language. Set in 19th-century Haida Gwaii, it tells the classic Haida story of a traumatized and stranded man transformed into Gaagiixiid, the wildman.

The Donald Brittain Award is a Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour the year's best television documentary on a social or political topic. Formerly presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards. The award may be presented to either a standalone broadcast of a documentary film, or to an individual full-length episode of a news or documentary series; documentary films which originally premiered theatrically, but were not already submitted for consideration in a CSA film category before being broadcast on television, are also considered television films for the purposes of the award.

Kevin Eastwood is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and film and television producer. He is best known for directing the Knowledge Network series Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH and British Columbia: An Untold History and the CBC Television documentaries Humboldt: The New Season and After the Sirens. His credits as a producer include the movies Fido, Preggoland and The Delicate Art of Parking, the television series The Romeo Section, and the documentaries Haida Modern, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World and Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwaai Edenshaw</span> Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada

Gwaai Edenshaw is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. Along with Helen Haig-Brown, he co-directed Edge of the Knife, the first Haida language feature film.

<i>Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes)</i> 2018 Canadian film

Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Amanda Strong and released in 2018. Based on the writings of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, the film centres on Biidaaban, a young shapeshifter on a secret mission to revive the traditional First Nations ritual of harvesting sap from maple trees to make maple sugar, despite living in a contemporary urban area.

Now Is the Time is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Christopher Auchter and released in 2019. Created to mark the 50th anniversary of Haida artist Robert Davidson carving and erecting a totem pole on Haida Gwaii in 1969 for the first time in nearly a century, the film blends historical footage from Eugene Boyko's 1970 documentary film This Was the Time with contemporary footage, including the now elderly Davidson's own reflections on the historic importance of his project. The film was made as part of a National Film Board of Canada project, encouraging indigenous filmmakers to make new works responding to and recontextualizing the sometimes colonialist outsider perspectives reflected in many of the organization's old documentaries on First Nations and Inuit cultures.

This Was the Time is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Eugene Boyko and released in 1970. Created for the National Film Board of Canada, the film portrays the renaissance of Haida culture through its depiction of a potlatch ceremony in Haida Gwaii, culminating in artist Robert Davidson carving and erecting a totem pole in the community for the first time in nearly a century.

<i>Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics</i> 2021 Canadian animated short film

Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Terril Calder and released in 2021. The film centres on a young Métis girl who is torn between Jesus teaching her about the seven deadly sins, and Nokomis telling her of the Seven Sacred Teachings. The film premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, and was subsequently screened at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Bill Reid Remembers is a 2022 Canadian short documentary film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin. The film is a portrait of the life and career of influential Haida artist Bill Reid.

References