The 10th Annual Parent and Community Evening for First Nation, Metis, and Inuit Education will include a special presentation by Mike Downie.
Celebrated storyteller and documentary filmmaker Mike Downie uses the story of Chanie Wenjack as a starting point to help audiences understand Canada’s legacy of residential schools, to explore how to reconcile with the past, and bring healing as individuals and as a nation according to a press release on the event.
When Mike Downie first heard the story of Chanie Wenjack—an Ojibway boy who died while running away from his residential school—it was like an arrow shot through his heart a press release on the event states. Haunted, he shared the story with his brother, celebrated musician Gord Downie, and the two vowed to find a way to tell it to the world. The result was their multi-media project Secret Path, consisting of a music album and a graphic novel and film. (with artist Jeff Lemire)
Mike is writer, director, and producer of numerous documentaries, as well as a founder of Edgarland Films. He won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Science Documentary for his film, Invasion of the Brain Snatchers. He received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Direction, and a nomination for the Allan King Award for Documentary Excellence for his film, One Ocean. The documentary also won two prestigious Chris Awards at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival.
Mike is co-founder of the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund, part of the movement to jumpstart reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.
The event is being held at the Rene Caisse Memorial Theatre,100 Clearbrook Trail, Bracebridge, on May 10, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. The event is free but you must book tickets at the theatre.
