Films from the colonial era often end up in archives without information about the Indigenous people and communities shown. Jennifer Dysart’s goal is to identify the families shown in the Keewatin Missions film, housed at Library and Archives Canada, that shows the Catholic archdiocese covering much of central and northern Canada in the 1950s. Jennifer’s work is a hybrid of community research and archival filmmaking made possible through the Archive/Counter-Archive’s network of festivals, archives and its commitment to change. For Regent Park Film Festival the film has been separated into two parts, allowing the audience to view the Indigenous content of the film, without encountering the weighty religious elements.

Content Warning: Part 2 shows religious content and children in attendance at residential schools

Origines, is a two-channel media installation that uses footage from Claude Jutra’s 1963 film À Tout Prendre (Take it All) to explore his then lover and film co-star Johanne Harrelle’s complicated quest for identity as a Black Francophone woman in Canada. It was produced as part of a residency at Library and Archives Canada through the research project Archive/Counter Archive.