A Part of Life
NFB, 2009, 4 min 39 s
NFB, 2009, 4 min 39 s
In March 2008, the Our World team visited Hazelton BC, (click here to view map) a community home to Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations. We were fortunate enough to base ourselves at the Gitxsan Wet'suwet'en Education Society (otherwise known as GWES) which is a very special school for aboriginal students (teenagers and adults) in Old Hazelton.
After an introductory session with Lisa Jackson in February, the rest of our team Lisa Nielsen (Tech Manager, and also Outreach Officer for CitizenShift), Elisa Chee (Animator-Mentor), Steve Sanderson (illustrator of an anti-suicide comic book called "Darkness Calls") and I (Catrina Longmuir, Associate Producer) went up for our 6-day intensive media session.
We had seven participants total, and in the end they made six amazing and diverse short films. These were all crafted with digital still images and animation. The GWES media lab does a lot of work around First Language education so were lucky to also have access to professional translator, Fidelia O’Brien, to help interpret the participants' pieces into the Gitxsan language. This has been a challenging (but integral) part of the process, as often the youth do not speak the language of their grandparents. It is part of the goal of this program to encourage youth to celebrate their culture and language even if they are not fluent.
Jeannette Mowatt has a vision when it comes to making her film "Art of Breadmaking" perhaps animation mentor ... 
Cara gets prepared for her sound demo with son, Adrian. 
Sherylanne & Catrina working in Photoshop on Sherylanne's piece, 'My True Thoughts' 
Group photo! at the community screening at GWES. L to r: top row: Marvin Skulsh, Cody Barnes, Sherylanne Hillis, ... 
Lisa Nielsen checks in on Marvin who is working away collaging his piece, 'The Hiding Place' ... 
Comic book artist Steve Sanderson talks about the origins of storytelling & storyboarding 
Lisa N in the foreground w/ Sharon Ness commenting on how beautiful her images are in her movie, 'A Part of Life' 
(At the community screening) Sherylanne with her son Nate and friend. 
Michelle Moore of the GWES Media Lab works on her animation Gwiis Gaaks Wiigyat with Steve. 
