Today our guest is Inde­pen­dent Métis film­mak­er from Edmon­ton, Conor McNal­ly. Conor’s newest film ôtê­naw has been screen­ing at film fes­ti­vals and Indige­nous aca­d­e­m­ic gath­er­ings all across the coun­try. The exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­tary fol­lows Cree schol­ar, Dwayne Don­ald on a inter­ac­tive land-based learn­ing expe­ri­ence, as he deliv­ers a walk­ing tour of the North Saskatchewan Riv­er Val­ley that runs through the heart of Edmon­ton. It has been called a palimpset of mov­ing images, his­to­ries, cul­tures, and cos­molo­gies, as Conor infus­es and lay­ers the raw black and white footage of Dwayne teach­ing with sen­so­ry light­ing, music, and psy­chdel­lic like tran­si­tions between scenes of mod­ern day Edmon­ton and crys­tal clear archival footage of the region known as Amiskwaci­wâskahikan. Conor will be screen­ing at The ART­Lab on Fort Gar­ry cam­pus on Novem­ber 7 as part of the Nation­al Cen­tre for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion’s Decol­o­niz­ing Lens series, and as part of the larg­er activ­i­ties hap­pen­ing around the Uni­veristy of Man­i­to­ba’s Office of Indige­nous Engage­ment host­ing the 3^rd Annu­al Build­ing Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Con­fer­ence from Nov. 7 – 9 which Dr. Don­ald will be deliv­er­ing a keynote speech at. We caught up with Conor while he was in Toron­to to screen ôtê­naw at Imag­i­Na­tive Film Fes­ti­val back in Octo­ber. We chat about inde­pen­dent film mak­ing and his expe­ri­ence trav­el­ling to Win­nipeg to screen at the WINDX Exper­i­men­tal Film Fes­ti­val in ear­ly October.