The Arctic Indigenous Film Fund (AIFF) and Telefilm Canada have selected nine participants for the second round of their training and mentorship program.

The Witness program provides training grants to Arctic Indigenous filmmakers to produce short films exploring themes of climate change and community. Shorts completed during the program will premiere at the Skábmagovat Indigenous Film Festival in Inari, Finland, in January 2025.

The participants for this round include two from Canada: Ashley Qilavaq-Savard and Jennifer Kilabuk (Inuit) with Intergenerational Climate Activism; and Eriel Lugt and Carmen Kuptana (Inuvialuit), who have an untitled project.

Also selected are Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in, U.S.) with This is a Story About Salmon; Marc Fussing Rosbach (Inuk, Greenland) with Our Ancestors’ Secrets; Johannes Vang (Sámi, Norway) with Red-Shaded Green; and Inga Elin Marakatt (Sámi, Sweden) and Sara Beate Eira (Sámi, Norway) with an untitled project.

The selected participants will attend workshops in Canada and Norway. Anishinaabe filmmaker Darlene Naponse and Jason Ryle (Anishinaabe), a producer and international and Indigenous cinema programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, are the mentors for this round.

AIFF CEO Liisa Holmberg said in a statement that the filmmakers’ “unique perspectives and storytelling abilities will undoubtedly contribute to meaningful conversations and highlight Indigenous leadership surrounding climate change in Arctic communities.”

“The Witness program is a professional development opportunity that allows Arctic Indigenous filmmakers to share how climate change is affecting their communities, to tell their own stories, and to meet and work with an international network of Indigenous filmmakers,” added Adriana Chartrand, lead, Indigenous initiatives and content analyst at Telefilm.

The AIFF was established in 2018 to support film and TV productions and coproductions with Indigenous peoples in Arctic regions. Its partners include Telefilm, the Canada Media Fund, Film Greenland, Nunavut Film Corporation, Sakha Film and the Sundance Institute.

Image: Unsplash