The Power of Three
Stacey Harris, 2009, 2 min 24 s
Stacey Harris, 2009, 2 min 24 s
This was our second trip to Old Hazelton. We once again set up shop at the Gitxsan Wet'suwet'en Education Society's First Nation High School, and had a total of eight participants this time! It's great because many of the participants come from neighboring communities that are hard to reach, so they all took the school bus to come to GWES in Old Hazelton.
Lisa Jackson and I went up a couple of days early and started the story writing. The stories ranged from deeply personal ones to traditional and biographical in nature. The rest of the team - Lisa Nielsen (tech director, filmmaker), Elisa Chee (animator), and our newest animating addition, Christopher Auchter, came up a couple of days afterwards to join me for the hands on workshop component.
We were lucky again to have a professional translator (Audrey Woods) provided by GWES to help the youth translate their pieces into the Gitksan language as none of the youth really speak the language. The school does have language classes and a media lab that creates Gitksan material, so we were very happy to be doing the workshop in this environment. According to the Unesco World Atlas of Endangered languages, there are 700 speakers of Gitksan left.
The week, as always went by tremendously fast. The participants were incredibly dedicated coming in all week during their spring break!
We had two returnees from last year – Marvin Skulsh, who again did a story inspired by his family. This was a piece specifically about his grandfather, Chris Skulsh who was a great man. Marvin's piece was a feast for the eyes with tons of beautiful archival images and little animated surprises along the way.
Sharon Ness was our other returnee, who is also a staff member at GWES. So we hope that she will continue to build on as well as pass on some of her skills to the youth. Her piece was fantastical again, (similar to her last film, "A Part of Life") however this time she green screened her young nephews to create a world.
Nishan Blackwater also did a biographical piece, however hers is almost fully in video (with some wonderful archival photos as well). It is a piece about her father Bill Blackwater (a former boxer, activist and actor!)
Alex Sterling Harris helped to film Nishan's piece, however with his own film, he created a poetic stop-motion animation honoring the smudge ceremony. His father is fluent in the Gitksan language and was able to narrate the piece for Alex.
Gordon Robinson did a personal piece that he narrated in Gitksan that deals with alcoholism that runs in the community, and his desire to ‘break the cycle'. He manages to bring humor to a difficult subject in this short film.
Jezabel Turley also did a deeply personal piece about kicking habits as well – she is a soon-to-be mom for the first time, and wants to give her child a different life. She quickly learned how to master photoshop and created a very brave and honest film.
Jaye Turley decided to do a short piece inspired by his grandfather about living off the land. As a young father himself, he values traditions and practices that he would like to pass on to the next generation. Jaye also narrated his piece in the Gitksan language.
Stacey decided to create a beautiful little film about being a single mother of two. Through digital storytelling techniques she tells a very inspiring story of strength and love.
The screening was held at an old theatre in Old Hazelton (the Tri Town Theatre) on a Sunday afternoon and we had a wonderfully engaged audience. After the screening, we had a Q & A session, and there were several community members that expressed that they were very touched by the films, and that they thought the youth should be very proud of their accomplishments.
Jezabel, a soon-to-be young mother worked independently and seemed to take to photoshop right away.
Jezabel was hesitant at first, but then decided to narrate the very end of her short film in the Gitksan language (which she doesn’t speak!)
Lisa, our tech director and editor/mentor worked with Marvin for the second time (you can tell they get along really well)
Alex showing Nishan some of his latest behind the scenes work (he took to the camera instantly)
Alex shooting Nishan’s movie about her father
Alex working meticulously on his short stop-motion animation about a smudge ceremony
Chris, our newest animation mentor surfing the net with Gordon and Nishan
Gordon, about to fall off the wagon... or get back on again!
Jaye thinking hard with Elisa on his next photo for his film about his granddad and living off the land
Sharon wanted to learn how to green screen for her fantastical film about the Wii-gyet
Some serious focus going on with Lisa and Stacey around her piece about being a single mom.
