Haida Modern | |
---|---|
Directed by | Charles Wilkinson |
Produced by | Tina Schliessler Charles Wilkinson Kevin Eastwood |
Cinematography | Charles Wilkinson |
Edited by | Tina Schliessler Charles Wilkinson |
Production companies | Shore Films Optic Nerve Films |
Distributed by | Knowledge Network |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
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.
The film traces Davidson's artistic career from his youth in Haida Gwaii and Vancouver studying with masters such as Bill Reid, and follows his education in the arts and in the history of the Indigenous Haida people from whom he is descended. [1] It highlights the summer of 1969 when Davidson carved and raised a totem pole in his home village for the first time in nearly a century, marking the start of a "renaissance" for Indigenous art in popular culture. [2] [3] Robertson looks back on his 50 year career, his struggles as a child of the Canadian Indian residential school system, [4] and his work as an activist for climate change and human rights.
Haida Modern had its world premiere at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival [5] followed by screenings at numerous other International Film Festivals. [6] It was the Closing Night Film at the 2020 Victoria Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2020 Hot Docs International Documentary Festival but was only screened online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [7] It had its broadcast television premiere on British Columbia's Knowledge Network on June 2, 2020, accompanied by a VOD release on Knowledge Network's streaming platform. [8]
The film was received favourably by audiences who saw it at film festivals, winning multiple "audience choice" awards: the Super Channel People's Choice Award for Most Popular Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival [9] and the Audience Choice Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the Available Light Film Festival. [10]
Critical response was similarly favourable. Dana Gee of The Vancouver Sun called the film "a fascinating, entertaining and eye-opening look at the world-renowned artist" [11] and in discussing her picks from the Vancouver International Film Festival on Global News, she said Haida Modern was "such a great movie - I loved it." [12]
Marsha Lederman of The Globe and Mail wrote: "What this film cleverly and beautifully lays out is a deeper argument – that Davidson was a critical force in bringing Haida culture back to his people..." [13]
The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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The 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 40th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from October 1 to October 11, 2021. Unlike the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, which was staged entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 festival featured in-person screenings at the VIFF Centre and other venues, although most titles were also available on the online VIFF Connects platform.
Coextinction is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Gloria Pancrazi and Elena Jean and released in 2021. The film centres on the environmental threat to orcas in the Pacific Ocean, caused in part by the simultaneous decline of Pacific salmon stocks that the orcas depend on for food.
The Vancouver International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual award, presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival to honour the film selected by a jury as the best Canadian film screened at VIFF that year.
Dear Audrey is a 2021 documentary film directed by Jeremiah Hayes. The film centres on activist and filmmaker Martin Duckworth, as he cares for his wife Audrey Schirmer through the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Kathleen Jayme is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is most noted for the films Finding Big Country and The Grizzlie Truth, which examine the history of the ill-fated Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association.
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Lay Down Your Heart is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Marie Clements. The film is a portrait of Niall McNeil, a Vancouver-based theatre performer and writer with Down syndrome.
Christopher Auchter is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. 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.