imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Announces Opening and Closing Night Films

imagineNATIVE is pleased to announce the Opening and Closing Galas for the 20th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, running October 22-27, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, plus films which will have their premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

imagineNATIVE's Opening Night Gala on Tuesday, October 22 will be One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk by Zacharias Kunuk at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Rich in Kunuk's distinct visual language, One Day tells the true story of Noah Piugattuk's community in Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, 1961. They live and hunt by dogteam, just as Noah's ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When a European settler, known as Boss, arrives in camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change.

On Sunday, October 27, the Closing Night Gala will be the North American premiere of The Sun Above Me Never Sets by first-time feature director Lyubov Borisova at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The beautiful and humourous film celebrates the impossibilities within a wish. In The Sun, Altan gets a job on a desolate island. Unsure and alone, Altan discovers he has a neighbour, the elderly Baibal, who has a special request. Baibal is ready for death and asks the boy to bury him near his wife's grave when he dies. Everyday Altan does everything to make the old man look forward to living another beautiful day.

"As imagineNATIVE celebrates our 20th anniversary this October, we are so honoured to begin and end this milestone Festival with One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk from Nunavut, and The Sun Above Me Never Sets from the Sakha Republic," said Niki Little, Artistic Director of imagineNATIVE. "These two stunning films, steeped in cultural knowledge, continue to transform Indigenous visual storytelling and cinema."

imagineNATIVE will also present the following films which will first screen at this year's TIFF: Blood Quantum by Jeff Barnaby; The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open, by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn; Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger by Alanis Obomsawin; and This Ink Runs Deep by Asia Youngman; in addition to One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk by Zacharias Kunuk.

More programming for the 20th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

October 22-27, 2019

imagineNATIVE Festival Passes are on sale until Tuesday, September 23, 2019

Call - TIFF Box Office on 416-599-2033

Online - TIFF Festival Partners and Third Party Events

In Person - TIFF Box Office at 350 King St W, Toronto, ON

For more information please call 416.585.2333 or visit http://www.imagineNATIVE.org

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