A film-maker, who was born in La Ronge, has released a new film with the National Film Board.
Janine Windolph’s film Our Maternal Home tells the story of her family tracing their origins to Waswanipi Cree Nation in Quebec.
Windolph’s grandmother was a missing woman from that community and the film-maker says there was a disconnection that she wanted to bridge for her children.
“The film is our journey back, to bring my kids, and reconnect with my family’s heritage,” she told MBC Radio News.
Windolph describes the film as a humble visit that transforms into reclamation and resilience as those at the heart of the story confront and heal from the generational impacts of cultural disconnection.
“Many Indigenous and non-Indigenous families can relate to those themes and how important that work is to do in a good way,” Windolph said.
Windolph says her role as a film-maker and a mother collided in this project.
“I felt those journeys were happening at the same time,” she said. “I was a film-maker and a mother trying to piece together our maternal family story.”
Out Maternal Home can be streamed for free at the National Film Board website. It is the third film she has released through the National Film Board.
Windolph is currently the Director of Indigenous Arts at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Her latest film can be viewed here.
(PHOTO – Irene Otter and Janine Windolph in Chiiwetau (Old Waswanipi). Windolph told MBC News she wanted the film to highlight Otter as a matriarch. Photo provided by the National Film Board.)