CBC ARTS: YOUNG FILMMAKER SHOWS GRANDMOTHER HER MÉTIS PAST

Winnipeg film opens Toronto's ImagineNative Film Festival

CBC Arts · Posted: Oct 15, 2008 12:58 PM ET | Last Updated: October 15, 2008

Winnipeg filmmaker Janelle Wookey documents her efforts to get her grandmother to admit to her Métis heritage in her film Mémère Métisse.

The 30-minute documentary, which opens the ImagineNative Film Festival in Toronto on Wednesday, turns on its head the traditional story of an elder passing on knowledge to the young.

Wookey, an emerging filmmaker and co-host of Friday Night Flick on the Aboriginal People's Television Network, says she made the film in attempt to reach others of her grandmother's generation who deny their Métis heritage.

"There are three points that I wanted to accomplish when I started the film," she said in an interview with CBC News.

"The first one was to get my mémère to admit that she was Métis because that was something she hadn't done, ever. And the second one was to understand exactly why she had been so embarrassed all her life and the third was to recognize her Métis part — make it official."

Wookey's 73-year-old grandmother, Cecile St. Amant, the matriarch of a large extended family,  was "willing to go along with anything."

"But she was convinced that deep down nothing was going to change but she was going to go along with it anyways. But in the end I grabbed her," Wookey said.

Wookey said, while  most of her family had accepted their Métis heritage, her grandmother, who was 25 per cent Métis, resisted.

"I think that it's important for people in her generation to let go of those preconceived notions of the Métis or let go of that stigma that they grew up with and come to terms with their Métis identity. There's so many people in Canada who don't know that they're Métis because their grandparents are keeping it a secret," she said.

Winnipeg currently has the fastest-growing population of people who describe themselves as Métis, Wookey said, in part because attitudes have changed.

St. Amant tries to get her granddaughter to understand the depth of the stigma Métis people of her generation faced.

"The Métis were called half-breeds, definitely not a term we're using today. They were considered poor," Wookey said. "We all grew up in a different time than she did, I guess."

Wookey said she's shown the film, due to have its world premiere Wednesday, to student groups and it's prompted some to look into their own backgrounds.

She shares the bill Wednesday night with Australian film, River of No Return,  by Darlene Johnson, making its North American premiere.

River of No Return features Frances Daingangan (of the Aboriginal masterpiece Ten Canoes ) documenting her long-held desire to be a movie star like Marilyn Monroe.

This year's ImagineNative festival, running Oct. 15 to 18, features films from Latin America, Australia, Sweden and Finland.

The festival closes with Older Than America, a feature film about the legacy of residential schools by actress turned director Georgina Lightning and starring Adam Beach and Tantoo Cardinal.