Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival marks 14th year celebrating Indigenous voices

“Asinabka,” an Algonquin word that refers to the region of Ottawa, is also the name of a four-day festival, showcasing and celebrating the Indigenous community. The Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival highlights a wide range of topics, from cultures and languages to international issues. It provides a space for Indigenous people to express themselves through filmmaking and media arts.

The festival, which ran from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, happened outside Club SAW at Arts Court and included a Saturday afternoon art showcase at Gallery 101. This year’s theme, inspired by The Addams Family, set the atmosphere for the filmmakers, artists and attendees.

Howard Adler, a long-time co-director/programmer for the Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival, said the goal of the festival is to portray an authentic perspective.

“Authenticity is an important topic and is central to what our festival is about. We literally started Asinabka to have authentic perspectives from actual Indigenous peoples reflected in film and storytelling on screen,” said Adler. “There is a long history of Indigenous voices being excluded and our festival is about making space for us to focus and highlight our historically underrepresented voices.”

Christopher Wong, another co-director/programmer for the festival, said Indigenous friends at Algonquin College worked hard to bring the festival to campus by organizing film screenings on Sept. 30 at the Mamidosewin Centre for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“They’re trying to host events using the Aboriginal lounge there, the Mamidosewin Centre. And they’ve invited us a couple times to do film screenings there,” said Wong. “It would be great to keep that relationship ongoing so that we can continue to tell our stories through film, through conversation, through food”.

The Mamidosewin Centre was not participating in this year’s event, but staff expressed their enthusiasm for the festival.

“Film festivals are helpful tools to do a lot of the storytelling and the awareness creation that aid the bridging of Indigenous views and the world view of Indigenous people,” said Eric Johnston, manager for the Mamidosewin Centre. “I think the film festival can be a voice for that.”

There are only a few Indigenous-led festivals and after 14 years going strong, the Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival has received positive support from the community and Indigenous artists. Artists are eager to be involved and recognized for their rich history and culture, said Adler.

As the festival came to a close, Adler expressed interest in the future of the event.

“I hope the festival continues for years to come. I think it’s an important event in the city of Ottawa,” said Adler. “I think there’s a need for our festival to exist and I think Indigenous films and Indigenous artists are only getting better and finally starting to get the much-deserved recognition.”