More Ambitious Indigenous Pics Search for International Audiences and Deals at Toronto Festival

variety.com:

Jennie Punter Indigenous cinema will make a global impact in Toronto this year, as the festival unspools a tight selection of nine Canadian and international features, docs and series for discerning auds and a bevy of buyers seeking unique acquisition titles with universal appeal. “These are the kinds of films we’ve been longing to see,” Toronto’s international programmer of global Indigenous cinema Jason Ryle said.

Ryle works alongside Kelly Boutsalis, who programs Canadian Indigenous titles; both joined TIFF’s programming team in 2022. “Filmmakers are now interacting with the international industry on a high level,” Ryle continued. “We’re still combating notions that Indigenous film is a genre, but the diversity of tones and storytelling approaches is coming through.” This is keenly felt by multihyphenate Eva Thomas, a dual citizen and member of Walpole Island First Nation, at the fest with Discovery titles “Aberdeen,” a turbulent family stability tale that she co-wrote and co-directed with Ojibwe filmmaker Ryan Cooper; and the wry grisly rez eco-thriller “Seeds,” which she executive produced. (Farpoint Distribution handles international sales of “Aberdeen.”) A decade or so ago, Thomas, who trained as an actor, was in L.A.

doing Thanksgiving commercials and being told she should learn how to ride a horse. “We call them ‘leather and feather’ gigs,” she told Variety in August. “I thought, ‘This isn’t going to change until someone else writes something different.’ So I decided to learn how to do that.” After shifting gears and gaining career traction, she ultimately returned to Canada, where the Indigenous screen sector was blowing up.