Native Cinema
There is no Little nor Big Cinema. There are stories that deserve to be told, viewpoints that need to be crossed.
Cinema was born from this ancestral reality : all human beings need to share stories to confront their world views. Aside from global and industrial cinema that tend to replace our collective local narratives, there are infinite ordinary stories rooted in landscapes and communities that live within.
Indigenous, native or “land-based” cinema as we understand it, is born from the land and above all from its residents, producing stories that can open minds and hearts and reconnect generations.
This cinema believes in the gathering power of visual storytelling. A Film can strenghthen the feeling of belonging to a place, feed its cultural identity, contribute to its collective protection. Do a movie together is already practice community.
OUR PLEA FOR A ROOTED CINEMA
Unheared voices, ordinary stories, memories or the elders and worlds of our Youth : everything belongs to a living heritage that films can collect and pass on.
We are convinced that a camera, shared among many hands, becomes a tool for cultural democracy.
Every territory carries a unique melody that deserves an original cinematic expression.
This is the reason why the Refuge Institute creates films. Not only to be shared, but for the process of their making can deeply transform those involved, from within to the whole community system.