Imagine a world that appears as if a child had perceived it. Where fear manifests itself in the most mundane of items, where the purity of magic prevails when the sun goes down, where everything exists with the charm of a children’s pop-up book imbued within it. Amanda Strong makes this fantasy a reality in her stop-frame animation Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes).
The film is based on the work of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, an Indigenous writer belonging to the Mississauga subtribe of the First Nations located in Ontario, Canada. Simpson is known for utilising the wonders of magic and spirituality to convey her passion for reviving Indigenous culture. In this story, we meet the eccentric Biidaaban and her 10,000-year-old shapeshifting companion Sabe, while they undertake a crucial quest to reclaim the beauty of Indigenous tradition and resist against a dark contemporary world that wants to bury it and forget.
Masked by the cover of nightfall, Biidaaban and Sabe take to the streets of a Canadian suburban town that appears ordinary on the surface, but is steeped in fantastical danger. The two characters attempt to collect sap from maple trees in order to make maple sugar, a task that had been practiced by their ancestors generations before. Throughout their journey, they are under the watchful eye of two hypnotically beautiful ghosts taking the shape of a wolf and a caribou – representing nature’s lost past and forming a key element of the story’s imagery.
The 19-minute film took two years to make and the attention to detail woven throughout the tale does not go unnoticed. Strong utilises the charms and quirks of traditional animation with such artistry in her miniature sets and puppets, and it injects this twee yet poignant story with the Hollywood auteurship of Tim Burton or Wes Anderson. Strong takes the art of cinematic visuals to otherworldly places that even transcend the need for dialogue. The majority of the narrative remains wordless, aside from the poetry that appears at the beginning and end of the story, sandwiching the message of tradition between realities of a contemporary world. Strong excels at executing a meaningful wordless narrative by turning it into a highly effective storytelling tool that deserves praise in and of itself.
There is an abundance of striking imagery running throughout the film to address a number of critical issues faced by Indigenous communities. These include fears around the loss of their culture, history and land – something that is cultivated in the film by recalling childhood fears. For instance, supposedly harmless everyday objects like a garden hose are brought to life and used to attack Biidaaban, standing in the way of her fight to reclaim her ceremonial heritage. Strong also draws attention to modernity’s oppression of Indigenous land through varying shots of electricity running through the depths of nature, a stark contrast forming between the two. The critiques do not end there, as it is evident Strong is alluding to the environmental problems the world is experiencing currently, where the ghosts of the wolf and the caribou, although beautiful, stand to represent the animals who have been chased out of their homes by land development – further acting as a metaphor for how Indigenous people has been treated, as their culture is too at risk of extinction. Strong has voiced that we are forgetting to honour the ancestors and animals that were here long before us, particularly in Canada where this story is set. This short film is a call to action, encouraging Indigenous viewers to prevent their culture from being drowned out by the white noise of modernity, to fight against land development and reclaim their rich history.
The characters of Biidaaban and Sabe embody this desired strength and tell their audiences there is no need to be afraid anymore. The final frame of the film reminds us that although tradition and modernity still stand north and south of one another, the fight to reclaim ceremonial custom lies between them in an electric space ready to collide. I would highly recommend this short for its beautifully creative form of storytelling and using this dreamlike world to unite a diverse set of cultures in understanding the issues impacting Indigenous communities that are far from fiction. It is a celebration of both the heritage of Indigenous culture and the artistry of animation.
Biidaaban is part of the Native Spirit Indigenous Film Festival, which continues in London. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/native-spirit-uk-17728364903">Register here</a>. This film was created by CBC Arts and is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWjnYKyiUB8">available to watch</a> on their YouTube channel.

Biidaaban Still Large _newsite

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's story inspired the creation of this beautifully realised, but critically powerful movie that explores the most pertinent issues facing Indigenous peoples.

Biidaaban: A Powerful Indigenous Tale of Magic and Resistance Brought to Life

The <a href="https://nativespiritfoundation.org/13th-native-spirit-festival-12-20-october-2019/">13th Native Spirit Film Festival</a> will be running between 12 and 20 October 2019. This event deserves far more support and recognition as a platform for Indigenous cinema. Native Spirit works to champion and promote this unique category of filmmaking, and their chosen films delve into significant social and political issues with an artistic flair guaranteed to attract any cinephile.
One of the films being screened at this year’s festival is Max Baring’s revealing documentary Guarding the Forest, which couldn’t have been more timely. The summer of 2019 brought to light the severe ecological threat faced by our planet, as a social media storm highlighted the environmental crimes being committed in the <a href="http://www.the-platform.org.uk/2019/08/21/darkness-descends-on-sao-paulo/">Amazon rainforest</a>. Although natural forest fires are not uncommon during the dry season, the sheer degree of destruction showing an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-49415973">increase in fires of more than 80%</a> points towards illegal deforestation through slash-and-burn methods. The reason for this deforestation lies with the agriculture industry creating land for their produce, and although this form of demarcation is illegal in Brazil, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210621-deforestation-in-brazil-has-rocketed-since-bolsonaro-became-president/">President Bolsonaro</a> has famously little concern for the planet’s wellbeing.
The recent international outrage is primarily concerned with the long-term environmental implications, but it is important not to lose sight of the people who are also battling the social fallout. Indigenous communities are losing homes and having their land destroyed for economic gain: if you thought climate action wasn’t getting enough media coverage, the human rights element of this atrocity certainly isn’t either. Max Baring’s festival film makes this issue known, giving a voice to the rainforest’s people.
Filmed in the Guajajara Indigenous territory within the depths of Brazil, Guarding the Forest holds a magnifying glass up to the devastation spreading through the Amazon rainforest due to the all-too-common prevalence of loggers. We are all aware of the impact deforestation has on our planet, but this documentary digs deeper into the direct social impact these atrocities have on local Indigenous populations and how members of the Guajajara community are fighting back.
The Guajajara Task Force call themselves “Guardians of the Forest” and view themselves as warriors serving to protect Mother Nature, aiming to negotiate with those who threaten her. The documentary exposes the politics surrounding the issues of deforestation and the eternal conflict between ecology and economy affecting the lives of so many. It highlights what used to be a lush beacon of greenery that provides us with 20% of the world’s oxygen, and that many justify its destruction because of the realities of a money-driven world. It is a film which surveys the fight between “individual, economic, private interests versus interests of the collective rights of Indigenous peoples” as Brazil’s first Indigenous congresswoman Joênia Wapichana puts it.
Following the election of President Bolsonaro and the power over land demarcation being transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture (an organisation whose main priority lies with farming) as opposed to the original organisation FUNAI (a foundation which aims to protect the rights of Indigenous people) logging has become far more of a cultural, as well as an environmental, threat.
Filmmakers put themselves on the front line as they utilise footage of fire, explosions and chaos to accentuate the destruction that the Guajajara Guardians are frequently facing. This serves to make the documentary all the more shocking, as it provides a melancholic reminder of the war we have declared on our own planet and its people. A simple yet effective use of Google Earth helps the audience visualise the severity of demarcation as vibrant green fades to lifeless brown in a fear-inducing image. The film runs for less than half an hour, but nevertheless offers viewers an intimate relationship with the Guardians, as cameras follow them through darkness and barren forests illustrating the reality of their fight. It effectively presents a more personal connection to environmental issues to strike the viewer on a human level.
This documentary does indeed emphasise the environmental crisis we all face, but its main focus is the Indigenous people of Brazil and the threats to their lives and homes. It also quite rightly sheds a light on the heroes putting their lives on the line to protect this precious ecosystem, something mainstream media channels have been failing to do. Using an environmental issue which inevitably impacts on the entire globe the documentary is a genius way of educating audiences (especially western) on cultural matters which would otherwise remain unexplored, bringing lesser known issues concerning Indigenous communities to the surface. As one of the Guardians so poignantly notes, “Our culture is our life, it’s in our blood, and nature is always part of our life” – and this thought-provoking documentary illustrates how deforestation is not only destroying land, but also destroying historical culture and human rights.
Guarding the Forest shows on 12th October at the Native Spirit Indigenous Film Festival at 2-4pm at The Court Room, First Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/native-spirit-uk-17728364903">Register here</a>.

Guarding the Forest Still _newsite

Max Baring’s new documentary film recounts the struggles of the indigenous peoples who live in the Amazon, after the burning of the rainforests gained international attention.