"Your Words, Our Privilege": An Evening Honoring Richard Wagamese – April 17
Join Milkweed Editions, the Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis, and the Film Society at 6:00pm at the Pracna Grotto for appetizers before the 4/17 screening, followed by a panel with Ajuawak Kapashesit (Lead Actor, Indian Horse) DANIEL SLAGER (PUBLISHER & CEO MILKWEED EDITIONS), MISSY WHITEMAN (MN-BASED ARTIST AND FILMMAKER).
Tickets to Rochester screenings will be sold at the door.
One of Canada’s foremost indigenous authors was the late Richard Wagamese. Adapted from his celebrated novel of the same name, Indian Horse is a poignant drama that centers on the life of one man’s fight to preserve his history and his freedom.
Beginning in 1950s Ontario, eight-year old Ojibway-Anishinaabe Saul Indian Horse is pulled from his community and sent to one of Canada’s Catholic Residential schools. He is ordered not to use his native language or express his culture, a move that—as history knows all too well—could prove devastating. But Saul persists, finding a place of belonging and freedom within the system of oppression by mastering the game of hockey.
With newcomer Sladen Peltier in the leading role, the story of Indian Horse is one of a child’s determination to free himself from confines and reconcile the scars of the past with the hope of the future.
Director Biography
Stephen S. Campanelli is a Canadian filmmaker. He got his start as a Steadicam operator and has been called one of cinema’s most trusted “camera eyes.” He has worked on a slew of award winning films and directed Momentum (’15), before releasing his latest project, Indian Horse.
Richard Wagamese (1955-2017) was one of Canada’s foremost writers, the author of memoirs and novels including Medicine Walk, Dream Wheels, and Indian Horse, to be published by Milkweed Editions on April 10th. Copies of the novel Indian Horse can be purchased at milkweed.org or in person at the event on April 17th.
Panelist Biography
Daniel Slager is the Publisher & CEO of Milkweed Editions. Prior to joining Milkweed as Editor-in-Chief in 2005, he was an editor at Harcourt Trade Publishers in New York, and Associate Editor of Grand Street. Slager is also a widely published translator from the German.
Missy Whiteman (Northern Arapaho and Kickapoo) is a filmmaker and film and media consultant with Independent Indigenous Film and Media (IIFM). Currently she is a recipient of the Sundance Native Lab Fellowship and Jerome Fellowship for her short film project Coyote Way: Going Back Home, which is scheduled to be released in 2018.
Ajuawak Kapashesit (Saul Indian Horse) has written, directed, and starred in a number of productions both on-screen and onstage since 2015. Outside of acting, Ajuawak is a trained linguist who focuses on language revitalization and documentation. He currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Press
"An adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s award winning novel, this moving and important drama sheds light on the dark history of Canada’s Residential Schools and the indomitable spirit of Indigenous people." - Screen Siren
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