FREE EVENT – WELCOME BACK “IN THE KNOW” SERIES
Jim Sanders, former Executive director of Freeze Frame Film Festival for Kids, is a life-long filmmaker, teacher, and activist who has has spent his artistic career exploring the potential for film and video to empower, heal and open the minds and hearts of his community and beyond. Rhayne Vermette is a gifted Metis filmmaker, recently winning the prestigious 2021 Toronto International Film Festivals Amplifying Voices award for her film Ste. Anne about a young indigenous girl who has reappeared after having gone missing and goes through an allegorical process of reconnecting with the land.
Both are passionate and gifted artists in their own right – and both are equally as committed to making sure that filmmaking gets into the hands of kids as a tool for self-expression, personal growth, and advocacy for themselves and their communities.
They will discuss their amazing cutting-edge educational project Digital Lodge which brought artists from all different fields into the lives of a group of indigenous youth in Thompson Manitoba for a the full six years of their middle school and high school years.
Beyond the wonderful films which came out of this project, the long-term relationships with the educators and artists helped the participants to excel academically and look to their futures with a greater sense of possibility.