
The Creative Film Practices of Amanda Strong and Rhayne Vermette: Proposing a Theoretical Framework for Considering Métis Film
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Where to Access:
https://pawaatamihk.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/Pawaatamihk/article/view/11/17
Years/Date Range:
2023
Overview:
As a Michif filmmaker, I seek to become more focused and pointed in my creative practice and research. My family story has particular socio-cultural linkages in the broader landscape of Métis history in the prairies, and it is these linkages that I am interested in exploring, both in reality-based and imagined filmic worlds, in an effort to contribute to the growing canon of works by Métis creators. The work that we put out into the world matters and will influence how people see and understand us. While I do not consider my creative work to be educational in a didactic sense, I believe this work is an important contribution to the growing canon of historically informed, culturally connected viewpoints in Métis Studies. It is my intention that this work may serve to inform the broader public about Métis peoples.It is equally important for me as a Métis academic to examine and consider the work of other Métis artists in generative ways in order to contribute to critical discourse in the developing field of Métis studies. My interests lie in broadly working within the methodology of Indigenous Storywork, with a focus on the specificities of Métis Storywork, imagining the potential of Métis Storywork methodology in film. Storywork is, broadly, a methodology of working with narrative-based information as a form of research. I draw from this framework illustrative analyses of the films Four Faces of the Moon by Amanda Strong and Ste. Anne by Rhayne Vermette. I apply Indigenous Storywork principles as they relate to Métis Storywork and identify Métis-specific approaches to storytelling. In the final section of this essay, I enact some of the principles of Métis Storywork outlined herein by considering linkages between my own practice as a Michif filmmaker and both Strong and Vermette’s works.

