A celebration of Indigenous storytelling is coming to the Chemainus Theatre this month with a mini film festival featuring three compelling films. Running Feb. 21 and 22, the festival offers audiences the chance to experience a documentary, a musical and a narrative film, all celebrating Indigenous stories, filmmakers and performers.
Les Filles du Roi (The KingB次元官网网址檚 Daughters) will screen on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. In this trilingual musical film, written in English, French and KanienB次元官网网址檏茅ha (Mohawk), and directed by Corey Payette, the lives of a Mohawk girl and her brother are forever disrupted after they forge an unlikely relationship with a Frenchwoman whose dream of a new life is more complicated than she could have imagined.
B次元官网网址淟es Filles du RoiB次元官网网址� refers to the approximately 800 young French women sent to New France between 1663 and 1673 to marry and have children under a program sponsored by King Louis XIV.
Originally an award-winning stage musical by groundbreaking theatre company Urban Ink, Payette adapted Les Filles du Roi for the big screen when the pandemic halted live theatre. Urban InkB次元官网网址檚 website quotes praise from critics that call Les Filles du Roi B次元官网网址渁 work of monumental importanceB次元官网网址�, B次元官网网址渉eartfelt, ambitious and tremendously earnestB次元官网网址�, B次元官网网址渕usically richB次元官网网址�, B次元官网网址� a linguistic adventureB次元官网网址� and a B次元官网网址渟umptuous reimagining of our historyB次元官网网址�.
On Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. audiences can catch Shore to Shore. This feature-length documentary by award-winning filmmaker Peter Campbell explores the creation of the Shore to Shore sculpture and the story of Portuguese Joe Silvey, whose deep connections with the Coast Salish, whalers and pioneers shaped his life along the B.C. coast. The film tells the story through the process of the creation and installation of a monumental sculpture in Stanley Park, Vancouver, created by Coast Salish master-carver, Luke Marston.
The festival closes on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. with Sweet Summer Pow-Wow, a must-see film. From director Darrell Dennis (The Great Salish Heist), Sweet Summer Pow-Wow follows a young Indigenous couple as they escape their troubled lives through a summer of love on the Pow-Wow circuit. The film stars Tatyana Rose Baptiste (In the Blink of an Eye), Joshua Odjick (Little Bird, Wildhood) and Graham Greene (Reservation Dogs, Green Mile) and was shot in Duncan.
The film marks the second feature from Orca Cove Media, founded by Vancouver Island locals Leslie Bland and Harold C. Joe.
Watch the trailer for Sweet Summer Pow-Wow on .
Tickets for the mini film festival at Chemainus Theatre are available now. For more information or to purchase, visit the . Audiences can enjoy a buffet dinner at the theatreB次元官网网址檚 Playbill Dining Room, creating a unique movie-going experience.
