On its world premiere

When our first short film, The Squeeze Box, made its world premiere at the 2005 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, it also marked my first film festival experience. It had been years since I dropped out of film school at York University and years since I had made a film. What made it so special was that the Aboriginal film community was so supportive of each other, genuinely interested in raising the overall Aboriginal filmmakers’ flag, together. They accepted me so wholeheartedly and it felt great. So, by the next spring we made another short film, Pookums, specifically for imagineNATIVE; it was like, “Well, their due date is coming up, we better get something for this year’s festival, really want to be a part of the community coming together again.” It reminded me of the powwow each May in Ottawa, it was just something the whole family packed up and went to. And by the end of that festival I told the executive director, “Next year, a feature film.” She looked at me like I was, I don't know, either nuts or lying, but I knew I just had to pull it off. So, in making Tkaronto there was absolutely no question about how fast we had to get it done and for whom we were rushing to get it done for. The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has raised the flag for Aboriginal filmmakers to run towards, and I'm running with this film saying, “Hey, this is what my friends and family are talking about.” imagineNATIVE is truly a place where we can watch movies like Tkaronto, come together and discuss and explore just what it is we as urban Aboriginal people are. For me, it's been a perfect fit.