Creative BC awards $200,000 in early project development funding to 11 Indigenous B.C. filmmakers through Rogers Indigenous Film Fund

Vancouver, B.C. (February 14, 2024) – Creative BC announced today the 11 new filmmakers receiving funding through the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund (the RIFF Program). With grants of $12,500 to $20,000 each, this is the third round of Indigenous B.C. filmmakers to receive funding since the program was first announced with Rogers Group of Funds in 2021. 

Designed in close consultation with the Indigenous community and industry, the multi-year $1 million RIFF Program funded by Rogers Group of Funds invests in local content creation for Indigenous filmmakers and creatives alike, for early project development work. To date, 52 projects have received funding, including the 11 announced today, with over $600,000 awarded in grants and top-up funding to Indigenous filmmakers in British Columbia. 

The Program is part of the Reel Focus BC suite of programs delivered by Creative BC, and is designed to advance First Nations, Métis and Inuit domestic motion picture activity and the creation of Indigenous-owned intellectual property. The program was created to complement other funding supports that encourage and enable Indigenous filmmakers and creatives to produce content from concept to full production with the support of Creative BC and other funding agencies. 

This program embodies Creative BC’s actions for equity and inclusion in program delivery. 

The following 11 individuals are the successful recipients of the second intake for the RIFF Program: 

1. Project: SO YOU WANT TO BE AN INDIAN?
“So You Want to Be An Indian?” is an absurdist satirical reality TV game show where six pretendians compete head-to-head in a series of challenges. In the end only one will win their very own official Certificate of Indian Status card.

Company: Raven House Films Ltd.
Producers: Kaitlyn Redcrow
Amount: $20,000.00

2. Project: RIEL
While exiled from his homeland, Louis Riel clashes with a vengeful bounty hunter, sparking a bloody showdown that will begin to shape the legacy of a nation. 

Producers: Rob Labas
Amount: $14,869.00

3. Project: JUST FOR LAUGHS? (Working title)
What role can Indigenous stand-up comedy play in Reconciliation? Follow a pair of Indigenous comedians as they vie for spots at the prestigious Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. Is it a step towards Reconciliation or is it all Just For Laughs? 

Producers: Brian Majore
Amount: $20,000.00

4. Project: CHOICES/SHATTERED PIECES (Working title)
A young First Nations couple fall apart due to drugs and alcohol. Will they be able to put their lives back together and fulfill their passions or fall deeper than ever? 

Company: Phoenix Skye Productions Inc.
Producers: Linda St. Pierre, Will Chilton
Amount: $20,000.00  

5. Project: GAME BONE
In the high stakes world of Indigenous stick gambling, an ex-con bets his freedom to expose his lifelong rival and win the respect of his daughter and community. 

Producers: Gordon Loverin
Amount: $20,000.00  

6. Project: THE SUPERNATURALS
THE SUPERNATURALS chronicles the world’s first all-Indigenous modelling agency, Supernaturals Modelling, and their mission to reshape the fashion industry. 

Company: Fashionable Productions Inc.
Producers: Patrick Shannon, Hayley Morin, Michael Grand.
Amount: $20,000.00

7. Project: THE USUAL ELDERS
The USUAL ELDERS follows the lives and escapades, of five Indigenous Elders as they negotiate life and aging, love and family feuds, and the joys and demands of living on a rural reserve called Broke Hat. They’re little like the “deep state” of the Rez.

Company: Road Trip Films
Producers: A. W Hopkins,
Amount: $20,000.00

8. Project: THE QUEEN OF EAST VAN
An Indigenous mother raising three daughters in East Vancouver wins an award and wants to look her best when she meets the mayor, but fate has another plan. 

Producers: Brenda Lynn Prince
Amount: $20,000.00

9. Project: KNOW WHO YOU ARE; KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM
Expounding on her short story of the same name, internationally recognized weaver Debra Sparrow explores “working creative,” and how her grandfather’s wisdom is passed down through her Coast Salish weaving.

Producers: Debra Sparrow, Bruce Marchfelder
Amount: $19,995.00

10. Project: HOLY ANGELS
Follows a young Cree girl over the course of one day inside Holy Angels residential school, and how she escapes abusive captivity by embodying the trickster of her family’s folklore.

Producers:  Jaysen Cardinal Villeneuve
Amount: $12,500.00  

11. Project: CONQUEST
When an incompetent intergalactic conqueror crash lands at a comic convention, he must find a way to subdue the locals or face the wrath of his merciless counterparts. 

Producers: Norman Lawrence Coyne
Amount: $15,000.00 

View a list of the recipients by program online here.    

Read the Creative BC Q+A: Targeted Program Design for Indigenous Filmmakers, Reflections and Approaches to the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund Program (RIFF Program). 

To learn more about the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund Program, visit Creative BC’s website: creativebc.com/riff-program  

Quotes:  

Prem Gill, CEO, Creative BC
“Creative BC is proud to announce funding for 11 projects led by Indigenous filmmakers and creatives in this round of the RIFF program. The fund plays a pivotal role in empowering Indigenous creators by providing essential financial support for early-stage projects, covering important initial creative aspects like research and development, community engagement, and scriptwriting. We eagerly anticipate seeing the advancement of both these projects and the careers they nurture.”  

Robin Mirsky, Director, Rogers Group of Funds
“We’re proud to collaborate with Creative BC to support Indigenous filmmakers as they tell their stories here and around the world. By removing barriers to equitable funding, the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund ensures each of these talented creators will continue telling meaningful stories of Indigenous history and experiences that need to be heard.” 

Gordon (Yanna Tan) Loverin, Program Recipient
“I am a filmmaker tied to expressing the unique cultures and values of Indigenous peoples. As an Indigenous creative, I need to show the world who we are–not what we’ve experienced in terms of colonial traumas. My film is about the ancient Indigenous game of chance or stick gambling. This is who we are culturally, and it is something to be proud of. I am grateful that the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund expresses, through this award, confidence in me to create a film world where an Indigenous man’s journey of redemption is set within the high stakes world of hand game tournaments.”

Media Contact: 
Creative BC
Lisa Escudero
media@creativebc.com
+1 604-730-2235 

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About Creative BC
Creative BC is an independent society created and supported by the Province to sustain and help grow British Columbia’s creative industries: motion picture, interactive and digital media, music and sound recording, and magazine and book publishing. The society delivers a wide range of programs and services with a mandate to expand B.C.’s creative economy. These activities include: administration of the provincial government’s motion picture tax credit programs; delivery of program funding and export marketing support for the sector; and provincial film commission services. Combined, these activities serve to attract inward investment and market B.C. as a partner and destination of choice for domestic and international content creation. The society acts as an industry catalyst and ambassador to help B.C.’s creative sector reach its economic, social, environmental, and creative potential both at home, and globally. Website: www.creativebc.com