Marvin ended up getting coerced by his family to do a (beautiful) piece specifically about his grandfather, Chris Skulsh. Marvin’s piece was a feast for the eyes with tons of beautiful archival images and little animated surprises along the way.

Sharon Ness was our other returnee, who is also a staff member at GWES. So we hope that she will continue to build on as well as pass on some of her skills to the youth. Her piece was fantastical again, (similar to her last film, “A Part of Life”) however this time she green screened her young nephews to create a world.

Nishan Blackwater also did a biographical piece, however hers is almost fully in video (with some wonderful archival photos as well). It is a piece about her father Bill Blackwater (a hereditary chief, former boxer, activist and actor!)

Alex Sterling Harris helped to film Nishan’s piece, however with his own film, he created a poetic stop-motion animation honoring the smudge ceremony. His father is fluent in the Gitksan language and was able to narrate the piece for Alex.

Gordon Robinson did a personal piece that he narrated in Gitksan that deals with alcoholism that runs in the community, and his desire to ‘break the cycle’. He manages to bring humor to a difficult subject in this short film.

Jezabel Turley also did a deeply personal piece about kicking habits as well – she is a soon-to-be mom for the first time, and wants to give her child a different life. She quickly learned how to master photoshop and created a very brave and honest film.

Jaye Turley decided to do a short piece inspired by his grandfather about living off the land. As a young father himself, he values traditions and practices that he would like to pass on to the next generation. Jaye also narrated his piece in the Gitksan language.

Stacey decided to create a beautiful little film about being a single mother of two. Through digital storytelling techniques she tells a very inspiring story of strength and love.

The screening was held at an old theatre in Old Hazelton (the Tri Town Theatre) on a Sunday afternoon and we had a wonderfully engaged audience. After the screening, we had a Q & A session, and there were several community members that expressed that they were very touched by the films, and that they thought the youth should be very proud of their accomplishments (we agree with this!)

We were fortunate again to have a professional Gitksan language expert with us thanks to GWES. Audrey Woods was wonderful to work with as she was very patient and really encouraged the youth to narrate their own pieces. It’s often an elder’s voice that narrates the young filmmakers films for our world, because that is the reality of the situation. None of the youth speak the old language. However, Audrey encouraged the young filmmakers to narrate their pieces, one word at a time…

(and we’d edit the words together for the final pieces).

Here are 3 of the youth that tried their voices at narrating in Gitksan.

Gordon, for his piece, “Breaking the Cycle”
Jaye, for his piece,”Living off the Land”
and Jezabel for “Its never too late”

Day 1 -

started the day off with a fun pixilation exercise as an icebreaker and to get the creative juices flowing. this seems like a really great way to start a workshop .. positive, fun, no real pressure, and even gets the shy ones going…

we had lunch and then watched a few of the our world films including the ones that were created in hazelton last year.then we had a regroup of how participants felt about the films - and if they had any that resonated with them - marvin’s was a favourite for a couple of students

Then we left the afternoon for the youth to start on their pieces.

Jezabel got about half way through her piece about the difficulties of growing up without much support. from the age of 5 she was already exposed to drugs and alcohol. she was in and out of rehab all throughout her teens, and ended up in juvie a couple of times. but now, at 18 she is 6 months pregnant and has not touched any drugs or alcohol since. she would like to turn her life around now, and live her youth with her baby - and give her baby the life she never had.

Jezabel’s brother Jaye had also decided to do a very personal piece about his stolen youth and around abuse. He is now trying to turn his life around. with a young son (age of 2) living 5 hours away, he is really trying to change. it was so inspiring today that he came in after a night of saying ‘no’ to social pressure to party - instead he said, he just watched his friends party, and took care of his grandmother, making sure she got home safe from the bar. He said he really wanted to be at the workshop, so he didn’t drink. Though he wrote out almost 2 pages of a story, he did not have a clear sense of how he wanted to portray abuse on video…

Then he started talking about his grandpa, Eli, who had lived off the land and who tells him about the old days. He is now thinking of doing a piece with his grandfather who could help tell his piece in Gitksan and talk about traditions that Jaye values in many ways. Jaye went to a wilderness survival camp a few times where he practiced what his grandfather taught him..

Alex, is an amazingly self-sufficient guy - totally open to hearing ideas, sharing ideas, and encouraging creativity from others. He had a few different ideas - started with wanting to do a portrait of a couple of local artists and then soon moved on to traditional stories that he thought he could do. This morning he came in with a few sheets of paper from his mother’s research about healing and plant medicine. Lisa and I encouraged him to go in this direction with the thought of going with some stop motion with the medicine. (he also makes beautiful medicine pouches). He then came up with the idea that he wanted to incorporate spirituality and healing into his piece, and a smudge ceremony. It turns out that Jaye knows the prayer that one must say during a smudge ceremony. Alex would like to video tape this ceremony, have Jaye narrate this part (perhaps his father could also narrate parts in gitksan. He already has it formatted out as a storyboard.

Nishan, who unfortunately had a terrible throat infection came in anyway today, and wants to do a piece about her father, bill blackwater who was a boxer, an actor, an activist AND is a hereditary chief. he came in today with a scrapbook with many articles around things that have happened in the community and that he also was involved in. she is thinking of interviewing him in his “shed” where he works away at things, while also hearing his stories and showing pictures from his scrapbook. it would be great to find out if there are other sources of pictures around at the library or at the museum.

Stacey is a lovely young single mother of two - one 7 years old the other only 2. She wanted to do a piece about the difficulties of being a single mom, but it was very inspiring to us that she is now really aspiring towards becoming an ECE teacher or a nurse, so that she can help elders and others. Though she had previous writing, she has re-written her piece and I think its going to have a really beautiful poetic moment to it when she makes a prayer to the moon (Gitxsan tradition) for her sons.

Marvin is a returnee from last year - he is again hoping to tell a story that his parents have passed on to him. its interesting because his piece is really about a ‘myth’ or belief.. that no one knows the origins of. that one should not speak to owls or else they will have to stay up all day and night long to talk with them.. and if they don’t they will die. An interesting twist on this story is that this actually happened to marvin’s grandfather. . (only his grandfather out-talked the owl and lived). we are hoping that marvin can maybe find out a few more points so that he can tell his grandpa’s point of view a little more. to this day marvin will not engage in conversation with an owl.

Gordon is doing a piece around also turning his life around. because of his girlfriend, he has been able to distract himself from continuing on the unhealthy path of only drinking and doing drugs. he talks about the rampant cycle, that exists because youth see their parents and older siblings doing things at a young age. then they want to try it. He is now running and doing things like the workshop to stop these bad habits.

I am incredibly pleased with the youth that have committed to doing the workshop. They’re all incredibly hard working and courageous people. I am honoured to be working with them.

We were so lucky to work with elder, Stephen Brown, who is completely fluent in the Haida language.
It was even better to see Kristy work with her chinni, (grandpa) Stephen on her own short film!

Check it out:

The community screening held at the end of the week was a great success! It was held at Tluu Xaada Naay (”Christian White’s”) Long House in Old Masset and was a packed house.  Thanks to the grant from Northern Credit Savings Union we were able to hire a contact of Nate’s hired Jack who brought his professional projector, enormous screen and beautiful sound system.  Each film was a great hit with the audience. We followed the screening with a Q & A session, where the youth individually talked about their inspirations to make their films. Audience members were also quite animated and we had a few very encouraging and positive remarks from the community. It was a magical evening. We really felt that the youth were delivering something that was not only about their own expression and accomplishment; but that the pieces were real contributions in the Haida language back to their community as well. We felt incredibly honoured to be a part of something so magical.

Lucy Bell owner of Haida Rose Cafe and with the Haida Speak Society generously gave gifts to all the participants and to the Our World crew which was so sweet.

Kristy Bell created a very personal and poetic piece about her struggle to belong. Given the Haida name for ‘Bashful’ by her Ts’inni Steven (our language expert), she goes on a journey to discover the world out there, only to discover that her heart is content when she is surrounded by her community and her roots. Kristy calls herself a “photographer-poet” which is very appropo – she has a really strong eye, and brings a playfulness to images through collaging and tweaking in photoshop. Kristy is taking Haida language courses and even narrated some of her piece in the Haida language. If we had more time, I’m sure she would have narrated the entire piece. Kristy is moving to Terrace in the fall to pursue a degree in First Nations Visual Art.

Brandon was the most independent participant. He had a strong sense visually of what he wanted to accomplish from the very beginning. Brandon is a visual artist and is apprenticing with Christian White in learning Haida art forms.  It is obvious in his short stop-motion animation that he is very artistically talented. His piece integrates the voice and face of Ts’inni Steven Brown, speaking in Haida about the loss of culture and the resurgence of it through future generations. It explores the power of Haida art and the importance of sustaining it.

Curtis Brown’s film is a touching account of how he (a “lost raven”) was uprooted at a young age and now as a young adult is rediscovering his roots as a Haida dancer. Curtis listened well to feedback, and learned the tools very quickly. He was one of the few participants to use AfterEffects to animate the initial sequence with his Raven dancer tattoo. He also played the flute for three of the six pieces (his own, Kiefer’s and Kristy’s), and performed in his own piece, traditionally and in a contemporary form. Curtis is also seriously considering going to film school.

Kiefer Collison created a short bold film stating that the community needs to listen to the youth because they are the future and must be heard. His piece was also done primarily in live-action video form. Having trained with Nate, he already had a strong sense of storytelling through images and sound. Another thing that was very evident with Kiefer was his sense of camaraderie and respect for his peers. He was always supportive of their work and working in a team. This comes through in his film as well. Kiefer is working with Nate’s production company, and is seriously considering film school.

We ended up with 6 amazing films, everyone with a really unique visual style and voice -

Here are little teasers - the full films will be on the our world site this in a couple of months - the Haida transcriptions are being put on.

Gwaliga Hart constructed a multi-layered story (short drama) entirely scripted and shot in video.  With the assistance of Nate Jolley, he was able to shoot this beautiful film in a couple of days. With the help of elder, Ts’inni Steven Brown (also our language expert), and Gwaliga’s little cousin Morris White, he was able to stage scenes that were very natural and charming. The film is about a young Haida boy who visits his ts’inni (grandfather) for story time, and is transported into a magical world of Haida language and tradition. This world is one that represents a world of nature, animals, language and Haida ways which are disappearing. Gwaliga managed to translate his strong vision and message through the medium of film.

(Nate & Gwaliga storyboarding)