Darlene Naponse

Last updated
Darlene Naponse
Nationality Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation, Canada
Occupation(s)Director, writer, filmmaker
Years active2002-present
Notable work Falls Around Her
Stellar

Darlene Naponse is an Anishinaabe filmmaker, writer, director, and community activist from Canada. [1] She is most noted for her 2018 film Falls Around Her , which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018 and subsequently won the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in October. [2]

Contents

A member of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation near Sudbury, Ontario, she previously directed the short films Retrace (2002) and She Is Water (2010), and the feature films Cradlesong (2003) and Every Emotion Costs (2010). [3] In 2017, she was a shortlisted Journey Prize finalist for her short story adaptation of "She Is Water". [4]

She serves as a part-time faculty member in the Department of English at Laurentian University. [5]

Her film Stellar went into production in 2021, [6] and premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. [7]

Personal life and activism

Naponse was born and raised in the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation, northern Ontario. [8] Her upbringing of fishing, gathering, hunting, and connecting with the land and her community largely informs her art. [9] She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English with a focus on film from Laurentian University, and received a First Nations Creative Writing Certificate from the En’owkin International School for Writing (University of Victoria). In 2015, she received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. [10]

Within her community, she has worked to improve and develop governance strategies. [8] She served as chair of a committee to work with community leaders and elders to write the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation Gchi-Naaknigewin (Constitution), which was ratified by the community in 2015. [11] [9] She continues to participate in First Nations governance and engage in environmental and human rights activism. [9]

She owns Pine Needle Productions, which is a multi-media studio located in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alanis Obomsawin</span> American-Canadian Abenaki artist and filmmaker

Alanis Obomsawin, is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.

Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, formerly known as the Whitefish Lake First Nation, is an Ojibway First Nation in northern Ontario, Canada. Its reserve is located at Whitefish Lake 6 on the shores of Whitefish Lake, 20 km southwest of Sudbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Latimer</span> Canadian actor and filmmaker

Michelle Latimer is a Canadian actress, director, writer, and filmmaker. She initially rose to prominence for her role as Trish Simkin on the television series Paradise Falls, shown nationally in Canada on Showcase Television (2001–2004). Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013), and the Viceland series, Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the latter won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Peoples from around the world. The festival includes screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events.

Tracey Penelope Tekahentakwa Deer is a Canadian screenwriter, film director and newspaper publisher based in Kahnawake, Quebec. She has written and directed several award-winning documentaries for Rezolution Pictures, an Aboriginal-run film and television production company. In 2008, she was the first Mohawk woman to win a Gemini Award, for her documentary Club Native. Her TV series Mohawk Girls had five seasons from 2014 to 2017. She also founded her own production company for independent short work.

Trevor Mack is a Tsilhqot'in Canadian filmmaker, writer, philosopher and former Crashed Ice extreme sports athlete.

Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, and producer. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards.

<i>Searchers</i> (film) 2016 Canadian film

Searchers is a 2016 Inuktitut-language Canadian drama film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based in part on the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, the film is set in Northern Canada in 1913. It centres on Kuanana, a man who returns from hunting to discover that much of his family has been killed and his wife and daughter have been kidnapped.

<i>Angry Inuk</i> 2016 Canadian film

Angry Inuk is a 2016 Canadian Inuit-themed feature-length documentary film written and directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that defends the Inuit seal hunt, as the hunt is a vital means for Inuit to sustain themselves. Subjects in Angry Inuk include Arnaquq-Baril herself as well as Aaju Peter, an Inuit seal hunt advocate, lawyer and seal fur clothing designer who depends on the sealskins for her livelihood. Partially shot in the filmmaker's home community of Iqaluit, as well as Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where seal hunting is essential for survival, the film follows Peter and other Inuit to Europe in an effort to have the EU Ban on Seal Products overturned. The film also criticizes NGOs such as Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for ignoring the needs of vulnerable northern communities who depend on hunting for their livelihoods by drawing a false distinction between subsistence-driven Inuit hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.

Caroline Monnet is an Anishinaabe French and Canadian contemporary artist and filmmaker known for her work in sculpture, installation, and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyla Innuksuk</span> Canadian Inuit film director

Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator. She is the CEO of Mixtape VR.

<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.

<i>Birth of a Family</i> 2017 film

Birth of a Family is a 2017 First Nations Canadian documentary directed by Tasha Hubbard and co-written by Hubbard and Betty Ann Adams. It follows three sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, who meet together for the first time.

<i>Falls Around Her</i> 2018 Canadian film

Falls Around Her is a 2018 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed by Darlene Naponse. The film stars Tantoo Cardinal as Mary Birchbark, an internationally famous First Nations musician who returns to her home community to recharge and reevaluate her life, only to find that her fame is not so easily left behind.

<i>Inconvenient Indian</i> 2020 Canadian documentary film

Inconvenient Indian is a 2020 Canadian documentary film, directed by Michelle Latimer. It is an adaptation of Thomas King's non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian, focusing on narratives of indigenous peoples of Canada. King stars as the documentary's narrator, with Gail Maurice and other indigenous artists appearing.

Danis Goulet is a First Nations (Cree-Métis) film director and screenwriter from Canada, whose debut feature film Night Raiders premiered in 2021.

Rosie is a 2022 Canadian comedy-drama film, written, produced, and directed by Gail Maurice. Maurice's feature directorial debut and an expansion of her 2018 short film of the same name, the film centres on Rosie, a young First Nations girl who is sent to live with her aunt Frédérique in Montreal after her mother's death, and learns the value of rebuilding chosen family from Fred and her two-spirit friends Flo and Mo.

<i>Stellar</i> (film) 2022 Canadian film directed by Darlene Naponse

Stellar is a 2022 Canadian romantic drama film, written, produced, and directed by Darlene Naponse. The film stars Braeden Clarke and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as an indigenous man and woman who meet and initiate a romantic relationship, setting off a cosmic chain of events that may save the world from destruction.

Eva Thomas is a Canadian First Nations filmmaker and screenwriter.

References

  1. ↑ "Falls Around Her director talks about sharing Indigenous stories 'through our own voices'". CBC Indigenous, September 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Darlene Naponse's Falls Around Her wins imagineNATIVE audience choice award". National Screen Institute, October 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ "TIFF 2018: CBC Indigenous lists 6 films to watch". CBC Indigenous, August 29, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Sharon Bala, Richard Kelly Kemick, Darlene Naponse make Journey Prize shortlist". Quill & Quire , September 13, 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Laurentian University Department of English". Laurentian.Ca. Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  6. ↑ Colleen Romaniuk, "Acclaimed filmmaker shooting Indigenous love story on Atikameksheng territory". Toronto Star , July 10, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Tanya Tagaq doc, Indigenous romance among Canadian titles added to TIFF slate". Toronto Star , August 10, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Falls Around Her". Red Nation International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2021-03-02. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 "The Hnatyshyn Foundation: Programs / REVEAL - Indigenous Art Awards / Laureates". RJHF. Archived from the original on 2017-06-08. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Writers' Trust of Canada". Writers Trust. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Atikameksheng Anishnawbek announces a successful vote of the G'Chi-Naaknigewin". Anishinabek News. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.