REEL ROOTz: Indigenous Media Arts Exhibition 2008
presented by the Indigenous Arts Service Organization in partnership with the Ullus Collective. 
February 8 to April 13, 2008

Film Screening and Opening Friday, February 8, 2008 Director Lisa Jackson in attendance.

For the eighth year in a row, the Kelowna Art Gallery is pleased to host the IASO’s film series: REEL ROOTz Indigenous Media Arts Exhibition 2008.  REEL ROOTz will showcase a series of films, videos, multi-media exhibitions and artist talks throughout the Okanagan Valley. REEL ROOTz will explore issues of identity, land, governance and culture of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Works screened will celebrate the expression of Indigenous voice through critical discourse and distinct storytelling methods in film. 

The Opening Reception will feature the screening of the following films:

Suckerfish
(2005, 9 min.) CANADA
Director and Producer: Lisa Jackson (Ojibwe)
Produced by: the National Film Board of Canada
Animation, childhood photographs and stylized recreations create a moving look at the director's relationship to her mother and Native identity.

When she was ten, Lisa Jackson fled Toronto to live with relatives in Vancouver to escape her mother's depression, alcoholism and prescription drug abuse­ – legacies of the residential school experience. Now, sifting through her memories and her mother's letters, she constructs a portrait of a mother whose drive to love her daughter triumphed over her demons of addiction. Animation, childhood photographs and stylized recreations add the young child's whimsical voice to this moving, at times humorous, look at the director's relationship to her mother and native identity.

Director Lisa Jackson spent several years researching, producing and coordinating award winning educational shows for the Knowledge Network and has directed curricular video and multimedia projects. She has a degree in film and history from Simon Fraser University.  Suckerfish is funded through Picture This, a documentary initiative of BC Film and the NFB, Pacific & Yukon Centre.

Mothers Milk 
(2007, 7 min.) CANADA
Directed by Aimee Lezard & Mariel Belanger. A short documentary tackling the issue of crack addicted pregnant mothers.  This is an Ullus Collective members (Okanagan) En’owkin student works.