Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] topped the winners at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Festival this weekend. The film by Adam Khalil and Zach Khalil won imagineNATIVE’s award for Best Documentary Feature at the closing ceremony on June 6. Aanikoobijigan observes members of the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance as they seek to repatriate the remains of their ancestors. This quest prompts a larger exploration of the number of Indigenous remains and artefacts housed in university and museum archives and the battle of “ownership” over Indigenous lives and stories. The film had its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs earlier this season with a Toronto encore at imagineNATIVE.
Also winning on the documentary front was AKI, directed by Darlene Naponse. The film, which served as imagineNATIVE’s opening night selection, scored the Sun Jury Award. AKI offers a meditative observation of the natural rhythms of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek territory across the seasons. The film begins its theatrical release this month.
Meanwhile, Alex PV’s IXIM (el amor no tiene género) was named Best Documentary Short. The Guatemalan production tells the story of Maya Q′eqchi′ trans woman and her quest for inclusion in society. The doc had its Canadian festival premiere at imagineNATIVE. Readers can currently stream the documentary on YouTube.
Other imagineNATIVE winners included Mārama, which won the Dramatic Feature Award for Taratoa Stappard and Outstanding Performance in a Feature for Ariāna Osborne. Actor and director Gail Maurice (Blood Lines) received the August Schellenberg Award of Excellence. The festival prizes distributed over $75,000 in winnings to the recipients.
