Ahnahktsipiitaa’s cinematic VR experience This Is Not a Ceremony premiering in January at the Sundance Film Festival.  Winning submission of the NFB/imagineNATIVE Digital Project Prize presented in New Frontier program in Park City and available worldwide via “The Spaceship”.

December 9, 2021 – Vancouver – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada VR experience This Is Not a Ceremony, written and directed by Ahnahktsipiitaa (Colin Van Loon), will have its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, taking place January 20–30.

Launch details:

• World premiere in the festival’s New Frontier program
• Available worldwide during Sundance through the virtual platform “The Spaceship”
• Presented in-person at New Frontier’s venue The Craft in Park City, Utah
• Ahnahktsipiitaa is scheduled to take part in an in-person presentation at The Craft

About the project

Niitsitapi writer and director Ahnahktsipiitaa (Colin Van Loon) takes us beyond the veil of traditional media and transports us directly into another realm, where past, present and future are one; where colonial rules and assumptions are forgotten; and where we can finally get to the truth of the matter. 

Presented in stunning cinematic VR, the narrative unfolds all around us, and we’re guided with care and kindness by tricksters, matriarchs and buffalo as we confront some of the darker sides of living life in Canada while Indigenous.

The creative team includes James Monkman (art direction and visual effects). Monkman is a Cree visual artist and art director living in Toronto. The creative team also includes Jessica Dymond (editor) and Nagamo Publishing (sound design and music).

About Ahnahktsipiitaa

Ahnahktsipiitaa is Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and Dutch, originally from the Piikani Nation. He currently lives on Westbank First Nation lands in West Kelowna, BC.

Production

This Is Not a Ceremony is produced by Dana Dansereau for the NFB’s Digital Studio in Vancouver. The project was the winning submission of the NFB/imagineNATIVE Digital Project Prize, which offers Indigenous artists in Canada an opportunity to create audacious, innovative and socially relevant new-media works.

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