One of Canada’s most celebrated artists working in film and VR, Lisa Jackson creates a highly realistic vision of Indigenous futurism in which tomorrow’s city of Toronto is radically reclaimed by nature, Indigenous languages, culture, and knowledge. An Anishinaabemowin word that means “the first light before dawn,” Biidaaban also refers to the concept of nonlinear time where past and future collapse in on the present. The Walker’s Art Lab will have three VR stations for experiencing this seven-minute project throughout the evening. 2018, VR installation, Canada, 7 minutes.
Sign up for your 7-minute VR experience at the front desk. Last time slot is 8:40 pm.
The (Un)Covered Wagon: An Arapaho Filmmaker Unpacks the Complexities of an Early Western
Missy Whiteman has a complicated relationship to The Covered Wagon, a 1923 silent film considered one of the first westerns: it's deeply racist, yet it's a source of pride on the Wind River reservation, because many Arapaho people—including her relatives—appeared as extras. As curator of the INDIgenesis film festival, she selected the film for opening night, where it will be recontextualized through a contemporary score performed live by Michael Wilson (Anishinaabe), special guests, and a presentation of historic photos shared by her father, Ernest Whiteman. The photos offer a frame for her understanding of the legacy of her people, family history, and work as a filmmaker today. Here, she shares these images along with music, text, and audio from a recent conversation with her father about The Covered Wagon and its meaning then and now.
