North Bay Film Festival 2017 | November 17-19
2167: Indigenous Storytelling in VR
What does Canada’s future look like?
2167 is an innovative virtual reality and immersive media project, combining new technology and oral storytelling traditions. Indigenous artists Danis Goulet, Kent Monkman and Scott Benesiinaabandan, alongside the interdisciplinary arts collective Postcommodity, have created stunning VR projects envisioning Indigenous life 150 years in the future.
This transformative exhibit will be free to enjoy at the WKP Kennedy Gallery from 2:00pm-3:30pm and 5:30pm-8:30pm during the first day of the North Bay Film Festival.
2167 has been made possible by imagineNATIVE, in partnership with TIFF, Pinnguaq and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.
2167 will include the following VR projects:
“The Hunt” by Danis Goulet
“The Hunt” imagines a postwar North America in 2167 that lies in ruin, where the law is enforced by a fleet of automated orbs that patrol the skies. When an orb interferes with a man and his son on a goose hunt on sovereign Mohawk territory, it forces an altercation. 6 mins.
“Honour Dance” by Kent Monkman
“Honour Dance” is a virtual reality experience based on a 2008 five-channel video installation by Kent Monkman, “Dance to the Berdashe.” Set in a verdant meadow at magic hour, “Honour Dance” offers a contemporary re-interpretation of a traditional Indigenous ritual featuring the Berdashe, a gender-bending figure whose behaviour and very existence astonished and appalled European explorers in North America. 5 mins.
“Blueberry Pie Under A Martian Sky” by Scott Benesiinaabandan
Bringing to life a prophetic Anishinabe legend about a young boy who travels through a wormhole back to his people’s place of origin, “Blueberry Pie Under the Martian Sky” also addresses concerns about the revitalization, growth and evolution of the Anishinabe language. 5 mins.
“Each Branch Determined” by Postcommodity
Imagining northern New Mexico 150 years in the future, where American Indian and Xicano pueblos work collaboratively to exercise communal and regional self-determination. “Each Branch Determined” echoes sci-fi conventions of an apocalyptic future that gradually reveal themselves to be a series of managed processes intended to restore and manage the land and its resources, as well as community ceremonies seeking to culturally and socially actuate past, present and future. 6 mins.