Gil Cardinal
Alberta director gets film and television award
Gil
Cardinal's career in film and video was started because a social
worker suggested he take courses at the Northern Alberta Institute
of Technology in Edmonton. He studied radio and television arts
and got a job as a cameraman for the Access Network, a provincially
funded television broadcaster in Alberta.
He made his first documentary, a portrait of the pianist Mark Jablonski. Soon he was directing the show Come Alive. But it was his work that examined Aboriginal issues, and his own search for his Aboriginal heritage, where Cardinal began to make his mark in film making.
Children of Alcohol, a documentary about kids from alcoholic families, and The Spirit Within, a documentary about Aboriginal spirituality in prisons, were done while he was a freelance director with the National Film Board. In the early 1980's, he made the film that changed his life, Foster Child. This documentary about his search to find his birth mother would earn him a Gemini Award for best director.
Cardinal was very surprised and excited when he found out last October that he would be receiving the National Aboriginal Achievement Award.
"I was asked if I would accept," he said. "I had followed the history of [the awards], and I understand what they're about in the larger context in helping to create more communication between Native and non-Native people, and in presenting very positive images."
The ceremony was an emotional one for Cardinal.
"I was just very happy to participate in it in such a direct way, but nothing prepared me for the strong overwhelming feelings during the day," he said. "Being involved in the whole ceremony, I found it very moving quite a number of times - a feeling of being part of something much bigger than me, much more than my role in it. It felt so good about the spirit that was there, celebrating the people, the community."
Cardinal embraces the intent of the awards, which is to provide positive Aboriginal role models for Aboriginal people.
"It's really vital to have," he said. "The spirit of it comes across well when it's televised. It's such a strong joyous spirit, it's hard not to feel that and to be inspired by it."
The Aboriginal youth, though, will benefit from this kind of ceremony because it does emphasize the positive achievements of Aboriginal people, instead of the negative images that are constantly bombarding them. Cardinal, himself, enjoyed speaking to the youth who were able to attend the ceremony.
"I had a great time talking to a lot of young people at the reception afterwards. It went on all through the evening," Cardinal said. "It's just wonderful to be able to talk with them, laugh. So, if they perceive me as a role model, I just hope that I can always be responsive and open, especially to the young people."
The achievement awards, however, also opened his eyes to the vast scope of Aboriginal achievement throughout Canada, and Cardinal hopes that the youth will be just as profoundly touched.
"It's great for youth to see the whole variety of activity that our people are involved in," he said. "That's one of the great things about [these awards]."
In the years since making Foster Child, Cardinal has directed episodes of North of 60, as well as worked on projects for the CBC, BBC and Atlantis Films. Almost all of his work is dominated by Aboriginal themes and issues, and have been showcased at numerous international festivals.
It seemed appropriate that Cardinal would receive this award since, as a foster child in Alberta, he was cut off from his Aboriginal heritage, but has contributed so much to the Aboriginal community through his film work. Gil Cardinal won the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for media and communications. He was selected ahead of seven other nominees.