Air Canada-Matera Prize Awarded at the 33rd First Peoples' Festival Presented at Italy's Matera Film Festival

MONTREAL – A new prize sponsored by Air Canada was awarded for the first time at the

33rd International First Peoples Festival last August. The award enabled the winning filmmakers to participate in the Matera Film Festival in Italy. This year, the Air Canada-Matera award was presented to Marie Clements' film Bones of Crows, which was screened at the festival with Italian subtitles.

Marie Clements having been detained in Canada, André Dudemaine, director of the International First Peoples' Festival, and Donato Santeramo, programmer of the Matera Film Festival, launched the screening at the CineTeatro Comunale Gerardo Guerrieri, located in Matera's Palazzo dell'Annunziata.

Bones of Crows is a multi-generational epic and story of resilience told through the eyes of Cree Matriarch Aline Spears (played throughout her life by Summer Testawich; Grace Dove, Monkey Beach; and Carla Rae, Rutherford Falls). Removed from their family home and forced into Canada's residential school system, young musical prodigy Aline and her siblings are plunged into a struggle for survival. Over the next hundred years, Aline and her descendants fight against systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse, and to build a more just future.

Bones of Crows is a sweeping drama grounded in historical truth, weaving together moments in Canadian and Indigenous history, including the Indigenous contributions to WW2, the ongoing cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Last year saw the launch of a collaboration between the First Peoples' Festival and the Matera Film Festival. On that occasion, Donato Santeremo and André Dudemaine, artistic directors of the two festivals, welcomed the agreement, which will now enable Indigenous cinema from the Americas to be showcased at an Italian film event. Both events share the common goal of being agents of community and social development in their respective environments, with high standards of artistic quality and cultural relevance in their programming.