The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival celebrates new works by Indigenous people on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio and new media.

Taika Waititi’s BOY, now the #1 highest grossing film in New Zealand, will open this year’s imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival on October 20th at 7pm at the Bloor Cinema.  Mr. Waititi will be in Toronto and in attendance for the Canadian Premiere.

Written, directed and starring Taika Waititi, BOY is an hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age story that begins in 1984 on the rural East Coast of New Zealand, a time when “Thriller” is changing kids’ lives. Inspired by Waititi’s Oscar-nominated Two Cars, One Night, BOY is about heroes, magic, and Michael Jackson.

The festival will close with A Windigo Tale, the directorial debut of Ojibway poet Armand Garnet Ruffo at the Bloor Cinema on October 24th at 7pm.  Filmed on the Six Nations community in Ontario and in the Ottawa Valley, the film ignites the screen with determination and heart and tells a powerful story of intergenerational trauma and healing.

“imagineNATIVE is situated at the intersection of ideas, issues, narratives and contemporary realities of Indigenous peoples from around the world,” states Executive Director, Jason Ryle. “What these film and media makers are doing is constructing history in engaging, entertaining and beautiful ways.”