A new winter course will explore Indigenous cinema as an empowering medium and show Brock students how Indigenous filmmakers are “flipping the script” on Indigenous representation through their art, says Assistant Professor Lyn Trudeau.

A synchronous online offering from the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, WGST 3P79 Indigenous Film is also cross-listed with Dramatic Arts, English, Film and Indigenous Studies.

“Film was one of the first media that the masses got, and that was how it helped really shape the narrative of Indigenous folks,” says Trudeau. “There has been such a change with Indigenous people being in film — most importantly, being able to tell our own stories and having the autonomy to represent ourselves.”

Trudeau says Indigenous film and filmmakers are thriving. She plans to spend much of the course focusing on recent productions — but notes that the historical impact of “representation, misrepresentation and non-representation” should not be glossed over.

“There is a lot positive happening in Indigenous film right now, so I don’t want to stay in those stagnant places and talk about all the old historical and really awful portrayals of us,” she says. “But at the same time, we have to address it, and there’s a story in how film has changed and what it took to change it, who changed it and who helped us change it.”

The course will primarily highlight the work of First Nations, Inuit and Métis filmmakers and the North American context, with some reference to global Indigenous cinema. Trudeau says that the concept of visual sovereignty will be important when examining the “crucial roles that imagery and performance play” in cinema from an Indigenous perspective.

“Visual sovereignty means having control, whether that means taking an old visual that was used to hurt us in certain ways and reclaim it and repurpose it or making your own more accurate portrayal,” says Trudeau. “A lot of it comes from community — not one Indigenous person saying, ‘this is how it’s going to be,’ but more of a collective agreement.”

During the course, Trudeau plans to host Indigenous filmmakers to talk about their work and their experiences in the film industry. As an artist and a researcher engaged in arts-based methodologies, she hopes to help students understand what goes into making films and perhaps even inspire some to experiment with film as a storytelling outlet.

But above all, she hopes that students from many backgrounds will take the opportunity to look at Indigenous cinema through an Indigenous lens.

“Film is consumed by society as a whole, including Indigenous people, so in this class I want to shape that new story,” says Trudeau. “We’ll set the context and then really look at the good work, the hard work. It is art, but what comes with it are changing stories, cultural revitalization and cultural survivance, in such a way that now our children will watch films with accurate portrayals of Indigenous people and stories.”