Weengushk Film Institute (WFI) is a non-profit, artist-focused film and television-training centre on Manitoulin Island, dedicated to unlocking the creative potential of Indigenous and diverse youth.
The partnership stems from Hot Docs' desire as an organization to meaningfully acknowledge the Indigenous peoples of the land we occupy as settlers. Beginning at this year’s Festival and throughout the year, Hot Docs will help raise awareness, engagement and financial support for Weengushk’s initiatives among our audiences and wider community.
We encourage you to learn more about and donate to WFI below.
100% of the donations collected through the Hot Docs-Weengushk Film Institute Fund will go directly to the school to help support its important work.
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About Weengushk Film Institute
Weengushk Film Institute was established in 2002 by Dr. Shirley Cheechoo as a community-based arts organization dedicated to the creation and establishment of an artist-focused centre for capacity building in the media arts for both Indigenous youth and persons of diversity. The Institute provides a unique forum for artists from various cultural experiences to share in their stories, and supports the collection, preservation, and representation of new voices in the media arts. Over the past 20 years, Weengushk has blossomed into a four year, residential, media-arts training and creation program for aspiring, emerging, and professional artists alike.
Runs Through Their Blood: A Life Impacted
D: Helen "DJ" Pyette | P: Angela Kijadjiwan
A collaboration created entirely by Weengushk Film Institute students, and the first student film to be shown on television, this short film explores the intergenerational effects of the residential school system. Following the discovery of the first 215 children’s graves found in Kamloops, BC in June of this year, students from WFI were inspired to document the impact of the residential schools on Indigenous people and their communities. The film has been made to educate the world through these untold stories and the history from the perspective of the people it affected.