This River | |
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Directed by |
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Written by |
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Produced by | Alicia Smith |
Starring | Kyle Kematch |
Cinematography | Iris Ng |
Edited by | Erika MacPherson |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 18 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
This River is a 2016 Canadian short documentary film directed by Katherena Vermette and Erika MacPherson. [1] The film centres on Drag the Red, a volunteer group in Manitoba who search the Red River for the bodies of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. [2]
Smith has stated that it was Vermette's North End Love Songs which helped draw her attention to the perspectives of indigenous youth from the North End and the experience of having missing family members. [3]
Principal photography took place August 8 to 16, 2016, with an all-woman crew documenting the work of Drag the Red volunteer Kyle Kematch. The crew spent much of that time filming from a small fleet of donated boats. The director of photographer was Iris Ng, with Anita Lubosh recording sound. [4]
The film received the 2016 Coup de coeur du jury award at Montreal's Terres en vues/Land InSights First Peoples' Festival and had its public premiere in Vermette's hometown of Winnipeg on October 5 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. [5] At the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, the film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary Film. [6]
Vermette and producer Alicia Smith also created a related Instagram work, What Brings Us Here, which offers portraits of volunteers behind the community-run Winnipeg search teams the Bear Clan and Drag the Red. [7] [8]
What Brings Us Here features photos by Winnipeg photographers Janine Kropla, Mark Reimer and Karen Asher. The online work combines images of searchers with their statements about why they are continuing to look for loved ones—and answers. [9]
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.
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katherena vermette is a Canadian writer, who won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs. Vermette is of Métis descent and originates from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was an MFA student in creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
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Tina Michelle Fontaine was a First Nations teenage girl who was reported missing and died in August 2014. Her case is considered among the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada, and her death renewed calls by activists for the government to conduct a national inquiry into the issue.
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Drag the Red is a community volunteer organization in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Founded in 2014 by a group of co-founders that included Kyle Kematch and MLA Bernadette Smith, the organization aims to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls by searching in and around the Red River of the North for bodies or evidence of missing persons.