The Tribeca Film Institute has picked an upcoming feature by Quebec director Jeff Barnaby to participate in its 9^th annual all-access program.

Rhymes For Young Ghouls was written and directed by Barnaby, who was born on a Mi’gmaq reserve in Listujug, Quebec.

The coming-of-age movie portrays a young Mi’gMaq girl in a family drug trade coping with the suicide of her mother and her father’s release from jail.

Rhymes For Young Ghouls is produced by John Christou and Aisling Chin-Yee of Montreal-based indie producer Prospector Films.

The feature has development financing from Telefilm Canada and SODEC, and early funding from the Canadian Film Centre.

No cast is yet attached to the project, which is eyeing a fall 2012 production.

Tribeca chose Barnaby’s unfinished film to receive on-going support from the Tribeca festival network through a partnership with the Canadian Film Centre.

A 2010 short by Barnaby, File Under Miscellaneous (pictured), where natives undergo surgery to fit into the dominant white culture, was recently acquired by The Movie Network after receiving a Genie nomination.

Barnaby is also developing another feature at Prospector Films, Blood Quantum, where the dead return to life outside a Mi’gMaq reserve, except for Indian inhabitants who are immune to a zombie plague.