Wapikoni Mobile is a Canadian

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

that hosts educational workshops and

film screening A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle. To show the film to best advantage, special screenings may take place in plush, low seat-cou ...

s to raise awareness and educate the wider public about Indigenous cultures, issues and

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

. Each year, an average of 300 youth participate in the workshops creating 50 short films and 30 musical recordings. Wapikoni Mobile has visited over 29 Indigenous nations in Canada and abroad (including

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Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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, and

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). The program has produced over 1000 short films and 600 music recordings giving a voice to over 4,000 Indigenous youth.

History

In the early 2000s, filmmaker Manon Barbeau shot a feature-length film with 15

Atikamekw The Atikamekw are an Indigenous people in Canada. Their historic territory, ('Our Land'), is in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec (about north of Montreal). One of the main communities is Manawan, about northeast of Montreal. ...

youths from the

Wemotaci Wemotaci (designated as Weymontachie 23 until 1997) is a First Nations reserve on the north shore of the Saint-Maurice River at the mouth of the Manouane River in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. Together with the Obedjiwan and the Couco ...

community in Quebec. Wapikoni is named after one of Barbeau's collaborators on the project, a young woman named Wapikoni Awashish, a young Cree woman who died in a car crash at the age of 20. At the time of her death, Awashish was filming a feature-length film titled "La fin du mapris". In 2004 during the Montreal First Peoples Festival, filmmaker Barbeau along with the Council of the Atikamekw Nation and the Youth Council First Nations of

and

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

(currently known as First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Network) founded Wapikoni Mobile and launched the first of the mobile studios that the organization operates today. The

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

was also a founding partner. A notable participant from the project's inaugural year was Samian, an Algonquin rapper from Pikogan in

Abitibi-Témiscamingue Abitibi-Témiscamingue () is an administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of and its population was 147,082 people as of the 2021 cens ...

, who is now a Wapikoni spokesperson and organizes fundraising concerts for the organization. Other Wapikoni participants have gone on to work at

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Canadian Crown corporation that supports Canada's audiovisual industry. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm Canada provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in Vancouver, British Colu ...

as well as the CBC. In 2011, lost nearly half a million dollars in operating grants from

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. Thanks to a grant from

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's suicide prevention strategy, the organization was able to visit Algonquin territory in October 2011. In 2012, Wapikoni Mobile received a three-year $520,000 grant from the McConnell Foundation. As of 2012, Wapikoni has two permanent studios: one each in the

Kitcisakik Kitcisakik or Grand-Lac Victoria Indian Settlement is an Indian settlement of the Kitcisakik Anicinape Community located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. It is geographically located within the territory of La Vallée-de- ...

and the

First Nations communities. In 2014, it hosted an international symposium with the goal of creating RICAA (Réseau International de Création Audiovisuelle Autochtone), a network of Aboriginal production companies. In 2017, Wapikoni Mobile became an official

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partner to provide consultation services on the expression of Indigenous youth and the issues affecting them. Wapikoni Mobile employs a dozen people in its offices and 60 contractual field workers (a third are Aboriginal).

Programming

The organization provides mentorship and training in audiovisual creation to Indigenous youth mostly in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the hopes of creating jobs and educational opportunities, countering high rates of suicide, drop-out and addiction. Participants accompanied by two filmmaker-mentor, an Indigenous assistant filmmaker-mentor, a local youth outreach worker, and a coordinator from the community. Youth are trained on technical aspects of film making with professional equipment. The month-long workshops focus on

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film making and musical recording, offering participants training in writing and directing, along with other behind the scenes work such as

filming Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sensor or light-s ...

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

, and

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

. Each mobile studio is an RV equipped with an editing station, a small sound studio, a projection and screening area, desktops with

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

, and HD cameras and microphones to film with. The organization has been credited with providing Aboriginal youth an outlet for expressing themselves, as well as the tools and skills to do so. The films are screened in their communities of origin and often go on to be screened more widely to non-Aboriginal audiences.

Awards and recognition

*Participants have won 152 awards and honours from national and international Human Rights organizations and film festivals. *28th Grand Prize of the Montreal Council of Arts, film category *2011, Rights and Freedoms Prize, the Honorable Mention Award at Plural + *2014, Intercultural Innovation Award from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) *2017, finalist for the 2017 Global Pluralism Award. In 2024, the organization's 20th anniversary wias marked with a special retrospective program of some of its short films at the 2024 Festival du nouveau cinéma."53e FNC: le meilleur du cinéma mondial en primeur à Montréal du 9 au 20 octobre 2024"
''CTVM'', September 25, 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wapikoni Non-profit organizations based in Montreal Indigenous film and television production companies in Canada Cinema of Quebec First Nations film First Nations in Quebec Arts organizations established in 2004 Indigenous peoples in Montreal Indigenous organizations in Quebec