Five Indigenous film and television creatives representing three short-form projects, one feature animation and one web series have been selected for the Jeff Barnaby Grant from imagineNATIVE and Netflix.

Filmmakers Kristina Fithern-Stiele and Tank Standing Buffalo of Calgary, Gavin Baird of Saskatoon, Sask., Bronwyn Szabo of Toronto, and Walter Scott of Kahnawake, Que., will each receive a $25,000 grant to support the projects they submitted, according to a news release.

The grant was announced in January and is named in honour of the late Mi’gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby (pictured). It offers a total of $125,000, disbursed from Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, for projects at any stage in the horror, thriller or futurism genres.

Writer-producer-director Fithern-Stiele will receive a grant for the short film Mother of All Creation, which has the logline: “Jess just wants to get an abortion, but the universe has other plans.” Fithern-Stiele is also currently developing a horror anthology series with Blink49 Studios and has helmed several short films, including her debut Breathe, which premiered at the imagineNATIVE festival in 2019.

Animator and multidisciplinary artist Standing Buffalo’s grant is for the feature animation Miigaadiwin, which is described as a story of a young mother struggling with destructive forces threatening her family and “the catastrophic appearance of giant supernatural beings.” Standing Buffalo, whose previous films RKLSS and SAVJ both screened at imagineNATIVE, is preparing to release a third auto-biographic horror animation, MONSTR.

Director-producer Baird was chosen for the short film Klee, in which “a young misbehaving extraterrestrial is sent to Earth to redeem himself by slowly killing the settlers of the area by giving them smallpox through sex.” Baird’s feature film credits include The Big Gust!, Begonia, The Caring Only Cry at Night and A Storm Blows Over. His production company, Dynamic Video Imaging, offers a film grant for Black, Indigenous and people of colour artists in Saskatchewan.

Writer-director Szabo is on the list with the web series It Doesn’t Show, in which the protagonist must “battle the deadly Qalley, hiding in the walls of her world,” while trying to decolonize herself. Szabo began writing for the APTN series Anaana’s Tent in 2019 and co-directed its third season. Her other credits include the short horror film Mardöll, on which she made her directorial debut, and short film Fan Girl, which she coproduced.

Multidisciplinary artist Scott is getting a grant for the short animation Organza’s Revenge, in which “a broke artist in a distant galaxy travels across the stars to seek revenge on her ex-lover in an attempt to cure her mysterious illness.” Scott’s screen credits include the short animated film The Pathos of Mandy, which is now part of the permanent collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

The three-person jury that chose the grant recipients included filmmaker Sarah Del Seronde, Barnaby’s wife, as well as actor-writer Devery Jacobs and director-screenwriter Danis Goulet. The application, jury and selection process was coordinated by imagineNATIVE.

“There were so many strong submissions for this grant, many of which highlighted the importance and impact Jeff Barnaby’s films had on them. It is clear his work will continue to inspire future generations,” Jamie-Lee Reardon, institute manager at imagineNATIVE, said in a statement.

“It was no easy task for the jury to pick five projects from almost 80 applications — I was in awe of the care and expertise they put into the selection process.”

Added Tara Woodbury, director, content – Canada, Netflix: “These projects are just a small representation of how Jeff has inspired and given voice to a new generation of Indigenous filmmakers.”

Image courtesy of Netflix