Next week, Toronto’s ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival, the largest indigenous media arts festival in the world, launches its 15th annual event. This year’s festival, which runs Oct. 22–26, introduces new literary programming – including an appearance by author Joseph Boyden and the publication of its first book.
Coded Territories, created in partnership with the Ryerson Image Centre and published by the University of Calgary Press, anthologizes a selection of essays by Canadian indigenous new media artists including Archer Pechawis, Jackson 2Bears, Jason Edward Lewis, Steven Foster, Candice Hopkins, and Cheryl L’Hirondelle. The book’s editors are curator and scholar Steven Loft and Kerry Swanson, ImagineNative’s former executive director.
Also new this year is a series called Storytelling Screening, which pairs authors and filmmakers to simultaneously present new work. Filmmaker Shane Belcourt will show a video in tandem with a reading by author and activist Maria Campbell. Métis artist Terril Calder will present an animated short alongside Joseph Boyden.