Spirited Ghosts: The Animated Films of Amanda Strong (Free Screening!)

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Amanda Strong, "Spirited Ghosts," 2021

Image courtesy of Cinemathque/Winnipeg Film Group

Event by Winnipeg Cinematheque, Winnipeg Film Group and Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery

Online: https://watch.eventive.org/wfgcinematheque/play/606f3ba4bcd7460037c3c954

Apr 12 at 12 AM UTC-05 – Apr 25 at 11:59 PM UTC-05

Price: Free · Duration: 13 days

Public · Anyone on or off Facebook

Award winning Michif animator and interdisciplinary artist Amanda Strong creates stunning stop-motion 2D/3D animation as well as gallery/museum installations, published books and community-activated projects. Her beautiful, thought provoking puppet animation requires meticulous attention to detail and challenges conventional storytelling. Exploring Indigenous history, language and culture in a progressive manner her award-winning films have played at major festivals around the world including Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival and the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Strong received a BAA in Interpretative Illustration and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Sheridan Institute. She was recently selected as the first Canadian Fellow to take part in the prestigious 2020 Sundance Institute Native Filmmaker’s Lab. Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin selected Strong to be the recipient of the Gilmour Technicolour Prize (2016), acknowledging Strong’s important contributions to contemporary Indigenous cinema. She is currently based on unceded Coast Salish territories, also known as Vancouver, BC. Strong is the owner, director and producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc.

Indigo

Directed by Amanda Strong

2014, Canada, 9 min

Hand-crafted, stop-motion figures come to life in this dreamlike world inspired by Native stories, in which a confined woman is liberated by grandmother spider while opaque memories are projected in an effort to restore her spirit as life nears its end.

Mia’

Directed by Amanda Strong

2015, Canada, 8 min

A young Indigenous female street artist named Mia’ walks through the city streets painting scenes rooted in the supernatural history of her people. Lacking cultural resources and familial connection within the city, she paints these images from intuition and blood memory. She has not heard the stories from her Elders lips, but has found her own methods to rediscover them. The alleyways become her sanctuary and secret gallery, and her art comes to life. Mia’ is pulled into her own transformation via the vessel of a salmon. In the struggle to return home, she traverses through polluted waters and skies, witnessing various forms of industrial violence and imprint that have occurred upon the land.

How to Steal a Canoe

Directed by Amanda Strong

2016, Canada, 4 min

How to Steal A Canoe is the story of a young Nishnaabeg woman and an elder Nishnaabeg man rescuing a canoe from a museum and returning it to the lake it was meant to be with. On a deeper level, we witness the act of stealing back the precious parts of us, that were always ours in the first place as Indigenous people.

Spirit Bear and Children Make History

Directed by Amanda Strong

2020, Canada, 26 min

Suitable for all ages and important viewing for everyone, this event starts with a screening of the stop motion short that sees Michif animator Amanda Strong and Gitxsan child rights activist Cindy Blackstock adapt Spirit Bear’s books for the screen.

Here, they tell the tale of Spirit Bear hopping a train to Ottawa and banding together with children and animals alike to end injustice against First Nations children. In doing so, they honour the true story of Jordan River Anderson, a young Cree boy who could not leave the hospital as the Canadian government refused to pay for his at-home care because he was a First Nations child. Named in his memory, Jordan’s Principle is a child-first principle ensuring that First Nations children have the public services they need when they need them.

Presented in partnership with Urban Shaman Gallery.