On September 29th, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts went on Facebook live to share the lineup of Indigenous artists being showcased at the upcoming festival which takes place October 20-25, 2020.

For the 21st annual festival, the Executive Director of ImagineNATIVE, Naomi Johnson, has said that the organizers have set out to continue “to present the best in Indigenous stories with the thought, care and honour that they deserve.” This year’s festival will feature the work of 109 artists from 58 nations!

For the first time, imagineNATIVE will open with a shorts program – there will be four programs of shorts to check out, including: Red, Black, Yellow and White – named after the colours of the medicine wheel.  

You’ll be able to check out work from artists Sterlin Harjo, Sky Hopinka, Michelle Latimer, Miguel Hilari, Loretta Todd and Kiel McNaughton. For the shorts program you can look forward to pieces from Marja Helander, Shelley Niro, Jack Steele, Morningstar Angeline, Lisa Jackson and Kath Akuhata-Brown. In the digital and interactive spaces, you can explore work from Zacharias Kunuk and Elizabeth Laponsee. The festival offers an audio component as well, which will feature the work of Kim Wheeler.  

Each year, the festival features guest curated programming. For 2020, two installations will be presented. One is called Tell Me A Story and it includes 19 works. The second one is a French program called Écrans autochtones, which includes 11 different stories from Indigenous francophone communities.  

This year’s Artist Spotlight will feature Cree experimental artist, Thirza Cuthand. 

Learn more about the festival here. You can find the full schedule and purchase your tickets here.