A decade ago, I came to Canada as an immigrant, and in my process of integrating into my new home, I am still carrying unresolved questions about history, heritage, and belonging. In my quest to belong, I have been drawn to the indigenous communities of this land. Not as an observer. I am seeking connection, with a desire to learn from the elders, the keepers of wisdom, and the stories that matter. I am looking for ways to be genuinely useful, to participate in a process of healing, my own, and that of the people I now see as my extended family.

I am a documentary filmmaker and a teacher. The way I know how to find belonging, and to learn from communities, is to make something together. Especially with young people. 

That instinct gave birth to Bridge to Gesgapegiag, a fellowship model that proposes to bring together film and media students from urban centers with indigenous youth in communities, and create short films rooted in community stories. Not just films about the community. Films made with them.

The distance between generations is widening, quietly and steadily, and I feel it. Bridging that gap, between elders and youth, between cultures, between the stories that are fading and the people who have not yet heard them, is part of why this work matters to me.

The model is designed to grow. Different communities, different institutions, different stories, the same commitment to co-creation and exchange.

If you represent an indigenous community organization, an educational institution, or if you are a film or media student with something to contribute, or a cultural partner interested in exploring what this could look like together, please get in touch.