Festival announces new site for Walk of Honour

Although celebrities were hard to spot at this year's Dreamspeakers Film Festival, executive director Helen Callahasen was highly satisfied with the outcome of the June 4-7 event held in Edmonton's downtown area.
"There were many highlights of this year's festival, every year it's different, but I truly think the Walk of Honour was one of the favourite highlights," Callahasen remarked about the fundraiser luncheon. "We had a different kind of ceremony this year. It was more laid back where usually it's very formal."
At the luncheon, the Dreamspeakers Society announced a new site that will pay tribute to Native artists who have been honoured at the event with their own hand-imprinted plagues since 2005.
People honoured in the past were Producer/Director Willie Dunn, actor Jimmy Herman, actor Gordon Tootoosis, Producer/Director Will Campbell, actor August Schellenberg, Director/Writer Gil Cardinal, Producer/Director Alanis Obomsawin, actress Tantoo Cardinal, Director Barry Barclay, and AMMSA Communications and Media founder Bert Crowfoot.
Callahasen explained the new site ­ to be erected at the Beaver Hills Park on 105th and Jasper ­ was started through a discussion of ideas from several meetings.
"I think it's a very important initiative. The Walk of Honour was created to honour the legacy of people before us," she said. "It is important to recognize people, and is truly fitting to the people who are honoured in it." The site will record each recipient's name, why they were chosen, and the history of their work.
"It's one of those tributes for years to come for people who want to visit. We're hoping to bring it back next year," she said. Soon after the city approves the project this Fall, the Dreamspeakers Society expects to have a ceremony to start building the site.
Other festival events ranged from Aboriginal film screenings, a Youth Day, an International Speaker Series Program, and the yearly Aboriginal film pitching session.
Stella Martin, who was in charge of the film pitching portion of the festival, said while last year there were two separate pitching sessions for documentaries and feature films, this year they put it together as one.
"The (workshop and panel session) were well received," she said. "People don't really have a chance to pitch ideas anywhere else and this gives them that chance. And we offer a workshop, which was facilitated by Carol Geddes, an Aboriginal filmmaker and the feedback we got was good."
This year, five filmmaker-hopefuls pitched ideas to a panel of four television and feature film representatives ­ Taunui Stephens of the New Zealand Film Commission, Producer/Writer Gil Cardinal, Marty Ballentyne of APTN, and John Davies, Founder of Arkles Entertainment. Ideas ranged from a documentary about the Papaschase band's unmarked graves, a film about a Mexican/Mayan hero fighting for his peoples' survival, a docudrama showing the beauty of BC/Alberta, a documentary depicting people pushed off their land for oil development, and a film centred on a virus threatening mankind with the immunity of the Aboriginal people in North America.
After the ideas were pitched, the panellists deliberated and chose Shantell Favel-Ruebenstall, whose idea focussed on the unmarked graves of Papaschase band members in the city of Edmonton. During her presentation Favel-Rubenstall broke out in tears and explained that she seeks to accurately present the plight of the band members and to gain a stronger sense of identity through the film-making process. Martin said the idea was chosen because it met a lot of the criteria that the panel was looking for.
"It had to be well presented on a rating of 1 to 5, the panel had to be sold on the concept, it had to be doable, the audience had to be clearly identified, the type of program had to be clear, and it needed to be engaging and entertaining," Martin explained.
Favel-Ruebenstall received a $2,500 prize by APTN for her idea, which is a funding agreement that pays half of the contract for her production.
Another festival event, Youth Day "The Craft and Magic of Making Movies" featured inspiring role models and speakers, a DJ lunch, photo/autograph opportunities, movie making workshops, film screenings, and music performances, and entertainment.
Four participants ­ Billy Semansha, Marty Kolay, Morgan Kolay and Rusty Kazoney ­were brought to Youth Day by teacher Adam Gardner from the Assumption(Chatch) Dene Tha' First Nation in northern Alberta. The students said they walked away with a bit of useful information after they went to the workshop 'The Actor and the Director: A Collaborative Relationship," presented by Director Ron E. Scott and actor Michelle Thrush.
"I learned about how to be an actor," said Kolay, 16. "I came here to learn about acting and to have a bit more confidence, which I did learn by going to the workshop"
Semansha also said he came to the festival because he is thinking about being an actor, but he found just taking the trip was a great experience in itself. "I came to have fun and to meet new people," he explained. "It was a good trip here ­ that was fun, we drove ten hours in our van."
The youth were also invited to a casting call for roles in Scott's APTN television series 'Mixed Blessings', that centres on a newly married couple, an Aboriginal woman and white man ­ both with children ­ whose interracial family clashes as they adapt to two different lifestyles.
Callahasen said Youth Day was organized in a conference format that made sure to welcome youth to the city and the festival.
"We had people who were very honoured to be a part of the youth day. Gil Cardinal said we made him so proud to be a part of it this year," Callahasen explained. Cardinal was Lead Instructor of the Dreamspeakers on Tour, a 12-week filmmaking project for eight Aboriginal youth in the Edmonton area. Youth were instructed on film making techniques as they created eight documentary shorts on issues that affect their lives, with their final project screened at the Youth Day.
"The festival had so many films that people wanted to see," Callahasen said.
"On opening night there was Georgina Lightening, who showed her film 'Older Than America' which was sold out. And Gerald Auger's 'Honor Thy Father' dealing with native burial rights in an Anglican church setting. We had so much to offer."
Documentaries made up a lot of the films presented at the festival, a major topic being cultural genocide and its effects on the following generations. The festival also had an International Speaker Series on June 5, with speakers in the film and television industry from around the world, including filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand.
Some of the Aboriginal actors/actresses seen throughout the festival included Gordon Tootoosis, Jimmy Herman, Michelle Thrush, Gerald Auger, Jennifer Podemski, and Travis Dugas. Once again this year, the Dreamspeakers film festival surely reached its goal to support and educate the public about Aboriginal culture, art and heritage ­ and acting as a resource for Aboriginal filmmakers, directors, scriptwriters, cameramen, technicians, actors, musicians, storytellers, artists and craftspeople.