Five new Indigenous made films were produced in Prince George this summer and are now available for the public to watch.
The films were made during a course called the Empowered Filmmaker Masterclass which took place in Prince George this past August.
It’s a program offered to Indigenous individuals with no prior knowledge in filmmaking to shape them into self-sufficient, nimble and powerful media content creators.
“Filmmaking can do a lot of good and it can empower people,” says lead instructor and filmmaker Farhan Umedaly.
“It can give people who feel isolated a voice and that is how Indigenous people were meant to feel through these colonial strategies – isolation, hopelessness and despair.”
Umedaly started the masterclass three years ago. He has his own production company called VoVo Productions and he is best known for his indigenous focused documentaries A Last Stand for Lelu, and more recently, The Sun on Top of the House.
“It’s a five-day workshop to take Indigenous communities through script and storyboard development, camera technique, camera settings, camera movement, how to conduct interviews, how to shoot, edit and deliver their own films in five days.”
The program was eventually funded through both VoVo Productions and Telus Storyhive.
“It’s not fair for outsiders to be the ones telling Indigenous stories,” says Umedaly, who’s parents are refugees from Uganda. “I’m here in Canada, my parents came as refugees but I want to be proud of the land that I am walking on and I want to be a part of the solution.”
Umedaly taught 25 students in Veron during the program’s first run in 2017. The next year the program grew to three communities and 75 students and in 2019 Umedaly went to four communities including Prince George, teaching about 200 people in total.
“I break them into teams and everyone wears a different hat in the production,” says Umedaly. “My plan is for them to be completely self-sufficient filmmakers”
While the program is open to individuals as well, Umedaly says delegations from different Nations have been attending and using the course to train their media relations officers.
“They have employment essentially and are going for employment training for their jobs. A bunch of my students are working in their communities doing language restoration now, and teaching others.”
Umedaly says he also works to demystify the barrier to entry into filmmaking. He says anyone can make a film, all you need is the willpower and a little know-how.
On the final day of the course Umedaly says everyone helps to transform the classroom into a movie theatre and they all make popcorn and watch the films together. He says Elders and chiefs from the communities also come to watch the films.
“We watch these films and people cry and people are blown away. And I’m blown away. It’s a very special thing.”
Everybody in the program gets an official certification of complexion and ongoing mentorship from Umedaly. The program also concludes with Oscar style film awards including a digital warrior, best cinematographer and storyteller award.
“In Canada, it's possible for people to live their entire lives without knowing Indigenous people and that has to change,” says Umedaly. “The ally-ship with this program for me as a non-Indigenous person has blessed me in such ways that I can’t describe. It has given meaning to my life - to see such beautiful people and experience such a beautiful culture that is right underneath or fingertips and right underneath our feat.”
Umedaly says he is already organizing another masterclass to take place in Prince George again next summer.
