Nationally acclaimed filmmaker Helen Haig-Brown will screen her new documentary film My Legacy this Saturday evening at the Gibraltar Room.
The film was screened nationally last month on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network.
“The night will be a celebration of the home the film was born in, and the many community members who were featured in and key to the making of the film,” Haig-Brown says.
She comes from the Yunesit’in (Stone Reserve) community in the Tsilhqot’in and grew up between the Chilcotin and Vancouver.
She took two years of political science at university, then after discovering the medium of film in one of her courses, says she fell in love with the medium of film.
Graduating from Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Film Program she has developed into an internationally celebrated, award-winning director and a leading talent in experimental documentary.
Her film The Cave highlighting the Cariboo Chilcotin was lauded as one of Canada’s top 10 shorts in 2009 by Toronto International Film Festival. From Berlinale to Sundance, her work has received prestigious acclaim being selected for screening in both festivals.
My Legacy is part of Haig-Brown’s Legacy Series of one hour documentaries.
She is also working on a full-length Legacy feature film and recently launched Legacy Interactive an “online community dedicated to honouring, healing, renewing, and transforming our indigenous legacy.”
Haig-Brown says she was inspired to make My Legacy after her divorce, at a time when she was questioning her own ability to form strong relationships.
In parts of the film she asks people what love means to them and hears that it means being really honest with another person, sharing the ugly parts of yourself as well as the good parts, as she describes it, being vulnerable, letting yourself be fully seen, warts and all.
In her quest to find the intimacy needed for real love she traces some of her problems back to the difficult relationship she had with her mother as a child.
“My Legacy follows the often tenuous relationship between a mother and daughter made more complex by the legacy of residential school, taking us through a journey of healing the impacts of intergenerational trauma on trust, bonding, love and self worth,” Helen says.
She explains that in making the film she explores the way people who have been abused often suppress their emotions as a way of coping with the abuse they have experienced, but in doing so they may push down the bad along with the good.
“My mom was incredible in the film,” Helen says, adding she is a little nervous about showing the film locally because of the sensitive, personal nature of the work.
She hopes the film will help others in their healing journey – and not remain frozen in a sense of fear, anger and hopelessness.
The film has some very moving scenes and people can expect laughter and tears, food and music at the screening. My Legacy will be shown at the Gibraltar Room at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, Marc. 8.
The film was screened nationally last month on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network.
“The night will be a celebration of the home the film was born in, and the many community members who were featured in and key to the making of the film,” Haig-Brown says.
She comes from the Yunesit’in (Stone Reserve) community in the Tsilhqot’in and grew up between the Chilcotin and Vancouver.
She took two years of political science at university, then after discovering the medium of film in one of her courses, says she fell in love with the medium of film.
Graduating from Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Film Program she has developed into an internationally celebrated, award-winning director and a leading talent in experimental documentary.
Her film The Cave highlighting the Cariboo Chilcotin was lauded as one of Canada’s top 10 shorts in 2009 by Toronto International Film Festival. From Berlinale to Sundance, her work has received prestigious acclaim being selected for screening in both festivals.
My Legacy is part of Haig-Brown’s Legacy Series of one hour documentaries.
She is also working on a full-length Legacy feature film and recently launched Legacy Interactive an “online community dedicated to honouring, healing, renewing, and transforming our indigenous legacy.”
Haig-Brown says she was inspired to make My Legacy after her divorce, at a time when she was questioning her own ability to form strong relationships.
In parts of the film she asks people what love means to them and hears that it means being really honest with another person, sharing the ugly parts of yourself as well as the good parts, as she describes it, being vulnerable, letting yourself be fully seen, warts and all.
In her quest to find the intimacy needed for real love she traces some of her problems back to the difficult relationship she had with her mother as a child.
“My Legacy follows the often tenuous relationship between a mother and daughter made more complex by the legacy of residential school, taking us through a journey of healing the impacts of intergenerational trauma on trust, bonding, love and self worth,” Helen says.
She explains that in making the film she explores the way people who have been abused often suppress their emotions as a way of coping with the abuse they have experienced, but in doing so they may push down the bad along with the good.
“My mom was incredible in the film,” Helen says, adding she is a little nervous about showing the film locally because of the sensitive, personal nature of the work.
She hopes the film will help others in their healing journey – and not remain frozen in a sense of fear, anger and hopelessness.
The film has some very moving scenes and people can expect laughter and tears, food and music at the screening. My Legacy will be shown at the Gibraltar Room at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 8.