St’át’imc-Stó:lō artist Frankie McDonald explores climate crisis through computer-animated video, to February 28, 2023
Láwa7 looks at the links between colonialism and environmental devastation
Libby Leshgold Gallery presents Láwa7 from 8 am to 9 pm daily to February 28, 2023 on the outdoor Urban Screen at Emily Carr University (520 East 1st Avenue) as part of the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program. An artist talk with McDonald in conversation with artist-designer Connie Watts, associate director of Aboriginal Programs at ECU, takes place November 17 from 3:30 to 5 pm in ECU’s Aboriginal Gathering Place
INDIGENOUS ARTIST FRANKIE McDonald has created a new animated video that explores the relationship between colonialism and pressing environmental issues. Told through the story of a young girl and a magical salmon, Láwa7 uses computer animation to bring traditional Northwest Coast formline artwork into a 3D environment.
McDonald is an artist of two BC nations: St’át’imc Nation on her father’s side and Stó:lō Nation on her mother’s. Originally from Lillooet, McDonald aims to make Indigenous art a part of today’s world and uses it to have Indigenous people’s voices heard.
McDonald began working on Láwa7 in 2019, a year when B.C. salmon populations BC hit unprecedented lows.
“I felt that I needed to spread the message that we need to protect the wild salmon if we want to keep them from becoming extinct,” McDonald says in a release. “I want to shine a light on the struggles the wild salmon go through. It’s not something people think about every day, and I want to bring awareness to what pollution, fish farms and pipelines do to our salmon population.”
In Láwa7, a young woman named Nahani goes to the river to fish but catches only trash. A magical salmon named Láwa7 transforms her into a salmon and takes her on a journey through the water. Along the way, Nahani finds herself galvanized to make change as a result of seeing so much damage to the natural environment.
The film points to the harmful effects modern industry can have on the planet and also reminds that individuals and communities have the power to help make a difference. Nahani is loosely based on Frankie’s grandmother, educator, activist, and Indigenous language revitalization researcher Ethel “Stelomethet” Gardner. A Stó:lō member of the Skwah First Nation and long-time part of the Wild Salmon Defenders Alliance, Gardner died in 2020.
“She was so inspiring to me as an Indigenous woman,” McDonald says. “She never let anything hold her back from accomplishing everything that she did. She was well-educated and fearless and that’s what really inspires me about her.”
Related Articles
Subtitled Beauty Between the Lines, the film by Danny Berish and Ryan Mah digs deeper than the architect’s portfolio
White rabbits and Magritte clouds, as Visions Ouest presents film of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s epic and affecting multimedia performance
Featuring film offerings from all 27 European Union members, festival opens with Hungary’s Some Birds and closes with Ukraine’s The Hardest Hour
They’ll be competing in juried Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature at event December 4 to 8
Boldly pushing the documentary form, Vancouver director tracks a story that involved guns, drugs, money laundering, child abuse, and even murder
Canada-wide opportunity connects aspiring filmmakers with established industry professionals
In this classic of German expressionism screening at the Shadbolt, “Every frame is like an album cover,” says the postrock band’s Simon Dobbs
The Cinematheque curator Sonja Baksa delivers a week of programming centred on celluloid witches, just in time for Halloween
Photographer Kiliii Yuyan will be live on stage for the film’s visually stunning exploration of the Arctic
Inay (Mama) wins the Arbutus Award for best B.C. film; Summit award for best Canadian film goes to Universal Language
Another highlight of the series on the same date features Shōgun VFX supervisor Michael Cliett
F.W. Murnau’s 1926 classic follows the demon Mephisto, who makes a bet with an archangel that a good man’s soul can be corrupted
Lively, detective-like documentary reveals how Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Yup’ik ceremonial masks found their way into the hands of Surrealist masters—and new attempts to repatriate them
Quick takes on Brief History of a Family, Anora, Viva Niki, and Who by Fire, plus documentaries about everything from design mavericks to Haida logging protests to the children of overseas nannies
At VIFF, she dramatizes ex-boyfriend Chester Brown’s graphic novel about his explorations in hiring sex workers—while still living with the then-VJ
The Chef & the Daruma gets to the heart of the acclaimed culinary artist’s inspirations
Slumdog Millionaire composer joins the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at Vancouver International Film Festival keynote event
Jean-Luc Godard’s principal collaborator introduces Vancouver audiences to Godard’s final film Scénarios, along with Goodbye to Language
Vancouver Island’s Ari Kinarthy wrote the score and stars in a screening event that memorializes his life
*smiles and kisses you*, Grand Theft Hamlet, and Real offer moving and unsettling views of how we attempt to heal ourselves as part of the Spectrum series
NFB documentary traces a spoken-word poet's complex relationship with the woman who left her as a child in Jamaica
Screenings taking place from September 26 to October 6 include Luther: Never Too Much, Disco’s Revenge, So Surreal: Behind the Masks, and nine others
Faced with tragedy, Colombian-Canadian film and video artist builds a haunting collage about two indivisible spirits at Vancouver Latin American Film Festival
The creative force behind Valentina or the Serenity delves into mourning through the perspective of a young girl
Quick takes on La Suprema and Outsider Girls, two energized offerings at the upcoming ode to new cinema
Canadian highlights include Oscar contender Universal Language, The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, and Mexican closer Emilia Pérez
Agnieszka Holland’s new film focuses on the zone between Belarus and Poland, where refugees are stuck in a deadly political battle