Screenings at The Cinematheque and VIFF Centre bring past and future into focus on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21
Ranging from 1970s-era experiments in animation to an urgently current documentary, the offerings delve into the meaning of community and the power of place names
An image from The Forgotten Reels of Nunavut's Animation Workshop.
The Cinematheque presents The Forgotten Reels of Nunavut’s Animation Workshop on June 21 at 7 pm; the VIFF Centre screens təm kʷaθ nan Namesake on June 21 at noon, with more screenings June 27 and 28
SOME STORIES SURVIVE in drawings. Others live on in the names people fight to reclaim. This National Indigenous Peoples Day, two Vancouver screenings explore the ways memory, culture, and identity can be carried across generations.
At The Cinematheque, The Forgotten Reels of Nunavut's Animation Workshop revisits a remarkable artistic experiment in the 1970s. The program of short films draws from the Cape Dorset Film Animation Workshop, where artists known for their work in printmaking, carving, and graphic arts gathered in Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset) to explore the possibilities of animation.
More than 50 years later, the films remain strikingly fresh. Rather than telling conventional stories through animation, the artists experimented with movement, sound, and image to create works that still feel playful, surprising, and unlike anything else on the program.
The screening moves between animation and documentary, artmaking and memory. In “Pictures Out of My Life”, the drawings of celebrated Kinngait artist Pitseolak become a window into Arctic life, filled with animals, spirits, and recollections from decades past. The “Arctic Workshop Reels” pull back the curtain on the creative process itself, capturing artists experimenting with animation frame by frame. The program concludes with “Sikusilarmiut”, which combines excerpts from the workshop films with footage of Kinngait as it is today.
While The Cinematheque screening looks to the past, the VIFF Centre’s presentation of təm kʷaθ nan Namesake focuses on a question that remains urgent today: Who gets to name the places we call home?
Directed by Eileen Francis and Evan Adams, təm kʷaθ nan Namesake follows discussions unfolding between the Tla'amin Nation and the city of Powell River. At its centre is a request to restore the area's Indigenous name, a proposal that sparks debate throughout the community and raises larger questions about history, belonging, and whose stories are reflected in a place.
Drawing on community voices, personal experiences, and archival material, the film traces those conversations as they unfold. Along the way, elders share naming traditions rooted in the land, while residents reflect on what a name can carry and what it means to imagine a shared future.
For National Indigenous Peoples Day, both films invite audiences to look at the ways history can be preserved, revisited, and brought into the present. 
Related Articles
