Document Type
Review Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Much scholarship points to how ecological concerns are never far from Indigenous struggles for political sovereignty and public participation. In this paper we turn to the Indigenous film festival as a relatively understudied yet rich site to explore such ecological concerns. Specifically, we consider, the Toronto-based ImagineNATIVE, a prominent hub in the Indigenous film festival circuit. Through examining the festival’s 2012 film selections, we highlight films with explicit and less overt eco-activist messages. While the films themselves speak to eco-imaginations, we also draw from the festival experience to consider how the event itself participates in eco-sensibilities through its performative and embodied presence. In pairing festival analysis of website materials, reviews, and interviews with organizers and participants with ecocritical reading of films, we articulate how Indigenous film festivals serve as alternative spheres for ecological participation, and raise ecocritical questions pertinent to film festivals more broadly.
Repository Citation
Monani, Salma, and Miranda Brady. "ImagineNATIVE 2012: Ecocinema and The Indigenous Film Festival." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 13, no. 3, 2013, pp. 1–21. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol13/iss3/15