In A Good Way: Curated Short Film Program

In a Good Way: Curated Short Film Program

In a Good Way brings together a powerful collection of Indigenous short films from Canada and the US that imagine a future rooted in collective well-being. These films not only challenge traditional, extractive, and exploitative storytelling practices but also embody the spirit of creative sovereignty. The program highlights how Indigenous filmmakers are reclaiming narratives, asserting agency, and weaving together new paths forward—honoring both cultural heritage and contemporary experiences.

Through innovative and bold storytelling, these films engage with themes of community, healing, and ethical representation. Following the screenings, Evelyn will take part in a Q&A session delving deeper into the complexities of ethical storytelling and the importance of creative sovereignty in Indigenous cinema.

Q&A with Artist and Curator, Evelyn Pakinewatik, and Artist, Shaawanobinesiik “Shaawan” Francis Keahna

Evelyn Pakinewatik (Nbisiing Anishinaabe/Irish, Nipissing First Nation) is a queer disabled filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, printmaking, textile arts, and photography. Their practice examines the intersections of dreams, memory, and the ways society distorts interiority, relationality, and animacy. Evelyn’s upbringing, immersed in traditional textile and nature arts alongside their artist parents, fostered a deep commitment to anti-colonial survivance and inclusive, reciprocal creative processes.

Evelyn is a 2018 Reelworld E20 Fellow, 2019 4th World Media Lab Fellow, a 2020 HotDocs Doc Accelerator Fellow, and a 2021 EFM Doc Salon Fellow. Their films have been screened at prestigious festivals such as imagineNATIVE, Māoriland, Festival Présence Autochtone, and the Toronto Queer Film Festival. Evelyn’s work has also been showcased at notable venues like the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, Toronto City Hall, and the Bentway at Fort York. Recently, Evelyn completed their narrative short film Nooj Goji/Anywhere, which will begin its festival run in late 2024.

Learn more about Evelyn’s contributions to this year’s festival HERE.

Shaawanobinesiik “Shaawan” Francis Keahna wears many hats and names. Shaawan is an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Minnesota Ojibwe. Sometimes he’s a musician, performing under the name Bogo La$ik when solo, or Billy Jackass with his father. Shaawan has been a model and actor who has been talked about at least once by nearly everyone Native in the film and media industries, though often by his old name. His first chapbook, Mayday, came through Bottlecap Press in June 2023. He is a 2019 4th World Media Lab Fellow, and in 2024 he received a Rubys award in literary arts from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.

Shorts Featured:

Collective Resistance

17 Mins 08s  |  Dir: Isak Vaillancourt  |  2023

Told from the perspectives of 2SLGBTQ+ Afro-Indigenous leaders and activists, this short documentary intends to reimagine new possibilities for relationships between Blackness and Indigeneity which is rooted in solidarity and joy.

In what we now call Canada, race relations are often viewed through a framework of Indigenous and European-settler binaries. Collective Resistance seeks to shift the focus and explore Black and Indigenous relations through a lens of social justice and radical kinship.

Extractions

15 Mins 13s  |  Dir: TJ Cuthand  |  2019

Extractions parallels resource extraction with the booming child apprehension industry. As the filmmaker reviews how these industries have affected him, he reflects on having his own eggs retrieved and frozen to make an Indigenous baby.

Anywhere

19 Mins 58s  |  Dir: Evelyn Pakinewatik  |  2024

George lives a quiet life with his Gokmis on reserve. His girlfriend, Eileen, lives alone in the big city down south. Facing alienation, isolation, and a society of lovelessness, George chooses instead to love radically – at times through impossible means.

Dislocation Blues

16 Mins 57s  |  Dir: Sky Hopinka  |  2017

An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock. Shaawan Francis Keahna recounts his experiences entering, being at, and leaving the camp and the difficulties and the reluctance in looking back with a clear and critical eye. Terry Running Wild describes what his camp is like, and what he hopes it will become.