Darian Smith, a young indigenous woman who now lives in Ottawa, wishes to study in Nursing at the Algonquin College and become a physician. Produced by Wapikoni Mobile, the short-film she co-directed inspired the theme of Cinédanse Ottawa 2019.

“Healing Scars” focuses on the teachings of the jingle dress and its healing functions. Following an open-heart surgery, Deedee begins to learn the dance of the jingle dress. This film accompanies four young women as they learn about this dance of healing.

Dir.: Naomi Recollet | Nation: Anishnabe | Wikwemikong, Canada | 2017 | 5’26

Doris Sommer teaches at Harvard University as Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages ​​and Literatures and of African and African American Studies. She is also the head of the nonprofit Cultural Agents operating around the world

As a researcher and director of the Cultural Agent Initiatives, Doris Summer explores the bridge between arts initiatives within academia and their social relevance.

Through her Cultural Agent Initiatives, Sommer and her acolytes wish to highlight practices resulting from a process of creative participation, which allows symbolic reparation. Artists become agents of change, the sculptors who redefine social issues.

Through the screening of short documentaries and on-screen dance works presented below, as well as discussion panels, we will question our relationship to disease, health, mental health, and depression in our modern societies. We will listen carefully to the testimonies of Indigenous artists and representatives on the practices and traditional knowledge of their communities.

In the program:

“Menuatikushu Nikamun / Le chant du cœur” (2010),
Short-film by Shikuan Vollant, native of Ushat-Malioténam in Québec.

Gathered around a drum, an Innu becomes interested in the ritual of Pow-Wow, a tradition that comes from elsewhere. This film is produced by Wapikoni Mobile.

Dir.: Shikuan Vollant | Nation: Innu | Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, Canada | 2010 | 5’15

“Une courte histoire de la folie” (2014)
Short-film by Isabelle Hayeur, inspired by Virginie Brunelle’s chorégraphies (Montréal))

Hailed by critics of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, this film, directed by filmmaker and visual artist Isabelle Hayeur, will challenge our relationship to mental health.

Dir.: Hayeur, Isabelle | Montréal | 2014 | 27:00

Traditional Healings (2013)
Short-film by Raymond Caplin (Montréal)

This animated short is one of their most widely-produced Wapikoni films from around the world. A young woman dances in the heart of a devastated forest when suddenly, a miracle happens.

Dir.: Raymond Caplin | Nation: Mi’gmaq | Montréal, Canada | 2013 | 2’20

“A Day in the Life of a Young Person with Anxiety” (2017)
Short-film by Philippe-Alexandre Jacques (Winnipeg)

Emerging from a web series of dance capsules, this short film evokes the stigma associated with the abuse of anti-anxiety medications among young people. Building your identity in the heart of an over-medicated world.

Dir.: Dr. Roberta Woodgate, Philippe-Alexandre Jacques & Wookey Films | Chor: Philippe-Alexandre Jacques l Winnipeg l 2017 l 6’25

Meet us with your sandwich for this Lunch Beat in the magnificent SAW Gallery’s outdoor courtyard. We invited DJ Dom Hamel to brighten up your work-week with his sunny rhythms.

Tamar Rogoff wanted to create a new version of The Afternoon of a Faun, Vaslav Nijinski’s flagship piece created by Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes (1912). She chose to work with Gregg Mozgala, a young comedian with cerebral palsy, who would play the Faun. Tamar Rogoff adapted her creative teaching techniques to Gregg Mozgala’s physical condition, who agreed to submit his body and mind to his choreographer’s designs. 

For this workshop, Tamar Rogoff has developed a set of exercises in which participants will experiment with a new approach to managing their motor skills. Like Mozgala, who has learned to break the habits that come with cerebral palsy, participants will discover parts of their bodies over which they previously had little control and that can be sources of motor rehabilitation.

This workshop is intended, of course, for people with cerebral palsy or other movement disorders, but also for dance or theater artists, health professionals, occupational therapists, physical therapists, academics, and researchers.

Sign-up for the workshop today, spaces are limited: info@7a2g9abnpa.preview.infomaniak.website

How can dance help rebuild the lives of incarcerated men and women? Both in Canada and abroad, artists and researchers are increasingly working in prisons, in an attempt to work with the incarcerated to liberate their body and spirit.

Professor Emeritus in Criminology Sylvie Frigon of the University of Ottawa is recognized as a leader in this innovative practice. As a researcher, she traveled regularly to visit imprisoned women from France to New Zealand’s Maori to explore this new danse.

In the program:

Well Contested Sites
Short-film by Amie Dowling (United States),  Art and Social Justice Professor at the University of San Francisco

 Amie Dowling co-directed this short film with artists and male prisoners, from fathers to sons, on the site of the famous Alcatraz prison. Their film bears witness to a new humanistic practice within the American prison system.

Dir.: Amie Dowling & Austin Forbord Chor .Amie Dowling & Natalie Greene | San Francisco CA | 2013 | 13’15

“Sur ma peau”
Short-film by Compagnie Humaine, Eric Oberdorff (France)

This art film made in prison with detainees from the prison of Nice shows a process of engaged artistic research.

Dir.: Eric Oberdorff | Chor.: Eric Oberdorff | France | 2017 | 12’38

E_GO
Short-film by Alimzhan Alan Sabir, Eric Cheung (Vancouver)

How to keep being yourself when all these mirrors multiply our ego?

Dir.: Alimzhan Alan Sabir | Chor.: Eric Cheung | Canada | 2018 | 2’49

Sweatlodge Song
Short-film by Irène-Kimberly Valin-Awashish (Mashteuiatsh)

Her passion for dancing and singing allows a young girl to go through the hardships of life. This short film was produced by Wapikoni Mobile.

At the end of the afternoon, the authors’ group led by Professor Sylvie Frigon will launch the book “Dance, Confinement, and Resilient Bodies”, published by the University of Ottawa Press

Dir.: Irène-Kimberley & Valin-Awashish | Nation:Innue | Mashteuiatsh, Canada | 2018 | 4’15

In this collective work directed by Professor Sylvie Frigon, dance takes center stage to address complex issues such as victimization, delinquency, mental and physical health, and confinement.

Surrounded by inspiring co-authors such as Jacqui Young from Sing Sing Prison in New York and Christian Senechal, former Founding Director of the National Center for Dance Therapy, this document will surely become an important reference for research on the benefits that the ritual of dance can offer to victims, abusers, abusers.

In the presence of one of the collaborators, Jacqui Young.

Some initiatives and stories deserve to be exposed. The ones held by the association Au nom de la danse in Toulon (France) and directed by Cécile Martinez unquestionably deserve to be shared. 

It was after having invited her friend Stephanie Pillonca, the director of the film, who decided to dedicate a documentary to highlight the beautiful ambition of Cécile Martinez’s association: to unite and confederate despite all differences.

Au nom de la danse promotes the practice of dance for people with and without disabilities, and features inclusive dance choreographies, which are rare in the dance community.

Dir.: Stephanie Pillonca | France | 2018 | 52’

In the presence of Cécile Martinez (Au nom de la danse) who will be present for a talk-back after the screening.

In addition:

Rand()
Short-film by Veronika Akopova and Florian Goralsky (France-Russia)

Is it chance or a series of infinitely complex algorithms? Rand(), whose name refers to a computer command generating pseudo-random results, plunges the viewer into a game with unpredictable results.

Dir.: Veronika Akopova, Florian Goralsky | Chor.: Veronika Akopova | Moscou, Russie | 2018 | 7’58

Imitation
Short-film by Matthieu Hallé (Ottawa)

Imitation (self-portraiture) testifies to the dehumanization of the modern being and its necessary need for Nature.

Dir.: Matthieu Hallé | Canada | 2015 | 8’02