Creative Canada

A decade of artistic connection between Byron Bay Film Festival and the Canadian filmmaking community has this year been formalised into a showcase program called Creative Canada.

Highlighting the best of Canadian culture from across the country – in film, music and the emerging realities mediums – Creative Canada is based on our nations’ common circumstances and a shared cultural response to them.

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The WorldThe story of a profound, essential, and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence.RUMBLE explores how the Native American influence is an integral part of music history, despite attempts to ban, censor, and erase Indian culture in the United States.RUMBLE uses playful re-creations and little-known stories, alongside concert footage, archives and interviews. The stories of iconic Native musicians are told by some of America’s greatest music legends who knew them, played music with them, and were inspired by them: everyone from Buddy Guy, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett to Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, and Stevie Van Zandt.RUMBLE shows how Indigenous music was part of the very fabric of American popular music from the beginning, but that the Native American contribution was left out of the story – until now.RUMBLE screens at the Byron Bay Film Festival, Saturday 14 October, Byron Community Theatre, 6:45pmAmplify HerAmplify HER explores these rising stars and more as they come-of-age amidst the emerging cultural renaissance of the feminine.Blondtron is an outspoken, openly sexual music producer who crafted her latest track, ‘Set Your Pussy Free’ as an anthem for empowering women. Yet as she transitions into an entrepreneur launching her own tech company, her raunchy antics prevent her from being taken seriously.AppleCat is a sharp-witted DJ with heart, struggling to make ends meet – raising her young daughter by day and occasionally gigging as an online ‘camgirl’ at night. Her gift lies in creating soundscapes that allow others to release their sexual shame, yet to truly succeed, she must first forgive herself.On the heels of beating a mysterious decade-long illness, Lux Moderna channels her healing mantras into her music, creating spaces of shamanic transformation on the dance floor. Yet her biggest challenge awaits her: stepping out from behind the decks and performing as a center-stage priestess.Amplify Her screens Saturday 14 October, 1:15pm, Byron Community CentreJourneys to AdäkaSeven indigenous artists who look to the past for the strength to overcome a legacy of hurt, becoming cultural giants and leaders in the process.The documentary follows them as they prepare for the Adäka Cultural Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, inviting viewers into carving sheds, kitchens, and community halls. In these spaces, the artists and their families reconnect with their ancestors, heal, and attempt to find their personal light.The process is familiar — rehearsals, training, crafting — but the backdrop of distant northern communities and the intimate access serve up both difficult lessons and inspiration.JOURNEYS TO ADÄKA paints a moving portrait of self-empowered indigenous communities at a critical juncture in their history.Journeys to Adaka screens Saturday 7 October, Byron Community Theatre // Tuesday 10 October, Brunswick Picture HouseMiyubiThe world's first long-form scripted VR comedy from Montreal's VR Legendary Felix and Paul Studios.Miyubi is a 40-minute virtual reality comedy about a Japanese toy robot – inhabited by you, the viewer – gifted to a young boy on his birthday in 1982 suburban America.Over the course of a year, as the boy’s family fractures apart, you experience love and your inevitable obsolescence in an intimate, hilarious and endearing interactive story.Miyubi premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and has since been shown at SXSW and at Cannes International Film Festival Next.BBFF’s Virtual Reality program will also feature the work of Toronto-based company OccupiedVR and a special guest of the festival is the Emmy-Winning VR Specialist Stefan Grambart, also from Toronto. More information at bbff.com.au/creativecanadaDownload PDF for full article -[gview file="https://www.bbff.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/BBFF2017-Creative-Canada.pdf"]