The 2023 St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (October 17–21) will highlight intimate stories from Labrador Inuit communities and Quebec, with three short docs by women creators from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
Inuit stories from Labrador
The festival will feature the St. John’s premieres of two works by artists from the NFB’s Labrador Doc Project, an initiative of the Quebec & Atlantic Studio to amplify first-time Labrador Inuit filmmakers.
Hebron Relocation by Holly Andersen (15 min)
Produced by Latonia Hartery, Kat Baulu and Rohan Fernando
- In Hebron Relocation, Holly Andersen explores what makes a place a home as she learns more about her community’s connection to generations of displaced northern Labrador Inuit.
- Andersen is a filmmaker and photographer from the community of Makkovik, Nunatsiavut. Her practice focuses on her life there with friends, family and community members, and the beauty of northern landscapes and wildlife.
Miss Campbell: Inuk Teacher by Heather Campbell (15 min)
Produced by Rohan Fernando, Kat Baulu and Latonia Hartery
- Part oral history and part visual poem, Miss Campbell: Inuk Teacher is the story of Evelyn Campbell, a trailblazer for an Inuit-led educational system in the small community of Rigolet, Labrador.
- Originally from Rigolet, Heather Campbell is a well-known Inuk artist whose work has been featured in collections at the Canadian Museum of History, the City of Ottawa, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
A Quebec award winner
Fire-Jo-Ball by Audrey Nantel-Gagnon (17 min)
Produced by Nathalie Cloutier for NFB French Program’s Quebec, Canadian Francophonie & Acadian Documentary Studio
- Jo-Ann, a 57-year-old bartender, dreams of becoming a singer and actress. Oscillating between the spectacular and the intimate, the extra and the ordinary, she uses her daily life (and the film) to act out her starring role. Fire-Jo-Ball draws a portrait of a woman who loves all things rosy, even if her life isn’t always so.
- The film won the Coup de cœur SLA Location Award at Montreal’s 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival.
- Montreal filmmaker Audrey Nantel-Gagnon’s first film was Shirley Temple, a 2018 production at the Université du Québec à Montréal that travelled internationally and received several significant awards.
