Thursday, February 22, 2024
3:25 PM - 4:40 PM (ET)
Maxwell Library, Room 013
Event Type
Lecture
Department
Canadian Studies
Link
https://ems.bridgew.edu/MasterCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?EventDetailId=70184
Indigenous Representational Sovereignty and Kuessipan:
Adaptation or Appropriation?--Dr. Miléna Santoro, Georgetown University.
On Thursday, February 22, from 3:25-4:40pm in Maxwell
Library, Room 013, Quebec culture and film expert Dr. Miléna Santoro will discuss the
making and impact of Kuessipan (2019), an award-winning
coming-of-age film based on the novel by Innu writer Naomi Fontaine.
Directed by Franco-Québécoise filmmaker Myriam Verrault, and
co-written with Fontaine, the film centers
on Mikuan and Shaniss, two childhood friends whose lives diverge during high
school. Shaniss drops out and has a baby, while Mikuan plans to follow her
dream of becoming a writer by moving away from the reservation and attending
university in Quebec City. Their friendship becomes strained when
Mikuan begins dating Francis, a white boy from her writing workshop, and Shaniss
accuses Mikuan of rejecting her culture by entering a relationship with Francis
and planning to move away.
Dr. Santoro will address the
film's layers of questions, examining both Indigenous self-determination and
the importance of Indigenous film.
Kuessipan is available for streaming by all members of the
BSU community at the following link:
Kuessipan.mp4.
Sponsored by the Canadian Studies,
Film Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies Programs, Dr. Santoro’s
talk is open to the public.