{"id":62199,"date":"2021-11-12T15:41:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T15:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=62199"},"modified":"2021-11-12T15:41:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T15:41:55","slug":"from-joseph-boyden-to-michelle-latimer-why-does-this-keep-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=62199","title":{"rendered":"From Joseph Boyden To Michelle Latimer \u2013 Why Does This Keep Happening?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/inconvenient-truth-michelle-latimer\/\"><em><strong>From Joseph Boyden To Michelle Latimer \u2013 Why Does This Keep Happening?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canadaland<\/a><br \/>\n2021-02-15<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/inconvenient-truth-michelle-latimer\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/boyden-latimer_-1024x512.jpg\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/cndlnd\/ep-359-the-convenient-pretendian\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Our gatekeepers keep elevating Indigenous artists with tenuous connections to Indigeneity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Through most of 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Michelle_Latimer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michelle Latimer<\/a> was the hottest Indigenous filmmaker in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Canada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canada<\/a>. In September, she had two works at <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Toronto_International_Film_Festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TIFF<\/a>: the feature documentary <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inconvenient_Indian\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Inconvenient Indian<\/em><\/a>, which took the top two prizes for which it was eligible at the festival, and the first instalments of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trickster_(Canadian_TV_series)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Trickster<\/em><\/a>, a prestige <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/CBC_Television\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CBC<\/a> drama about growing up on reserve whilst contending with monsters both figurative and literal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLatimer\u2019s young characters are multifaceted, her interplay between score and imagery sets an energetic pace, and, most importantly, her respect for the trickster in Indigenous storytelling is evident,\u201d TIFF\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/geoff-macnaughton-48893ab4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Geoff Macnaughton<\/a> wrote in his programme note for <em>Trickster<\/em>. \u201cIf the archetype can truly impact younger generations, that respect is paramount \u2014 and Latimer\u2019s version exemplifies why it matters who gets to tell the story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When she appeared on the cover of <a href=\"https:\/\/nowtoronto.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>NOW\u2018s<\/em><\/a> annual TIFF issue, the magazine proclaimed that she \u201creclaims Indigenous storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But three months later, the CBC published an investigation that brought forward serious questions about Latimer\u2019s evolving claims of Indigenous identity and heritage \u2014 concerns about which had been raised privately since at least the summer.<\/p>\n<p>In short order, <em>Inconvenient Indian<\/em> was pulled from the 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sundance_Film_Festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sundance Film Festival<\/a> and its future release thrown into doubt. The CBC chose to not move ahead with a second season of <em>Trickster<\/em>, following conversations with the cast, crew, and author of the source material.<\/p>\n<p>And as first reported by <em>Variety<\/em>, Latimer hired crisis PR firm Navigator to manage the fallout, serving the CBC with a notice of libel.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot to unpack there, and today\u2019s episode of <em>CANADALAND<\/em> attempts to do so, through interviews with comedian and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/shows\/thunder-bay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Thunder Bay<\/em><\/a> host <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ryan_McMahon_(comedian)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ryan McMahon<\/a>, filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alethea_Arnaquq-Baril\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alethea Arnaquq-Baril<\/a>, and Inuk seal hunter Steven Lonsdale, the latter two of whom were featured in <em>Inconvenient Indian<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>For host <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jesse_Brown_(journalist)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jesse Brown<\/a>, one of the big questions is: Why does this keep happening? Between <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joseph_Boyden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joseph Boyden<\/a>, once Canada\u2019s hottest Indigenous novelist, and now Michelle Latimer, why do Canada\u2019s white cultural gatekeepers keep elevating Indigenous artists whose actual connections to Indigeneity are tenuous? Brown implicates himself in this, as he and McMahon had recently met with Latimer about helming a potential dramatic television adaption of <em>Thunder Bay<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the episode (00:59:49) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/inconvenient-truth-michelle-latimer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our gatekeepers keep elevating Indigenous artists with tenuous connections to Indigeneity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2850,19,1196,8,3015,6462],"tags":[32359,20008,21842,13560,32355,16792,32356,32357,32358,4617,24958,15677],"class_list":["post-62199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-audio","category-canada","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","category-passing-2","tag-alethea-arnaquq-baril","tag-canadaland","tag-canadian-broadcasting-corporation","tag-cbc","tag-jesse-brown","tag-joseph-boyden","tag-michelle-latimer","tag-ryan-mcmahon","tag-steven-lonsdale","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62201,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62199\/revisions\/62201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}