Victoria Anderson-Gardner

Thank you! Chi-miigwetch!

I’m excited and honoured to announce that I have been chosen by Alanis Obomsawin to win the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protege Prize. I will carry this honour with me for the rest of my life. It’s a funny story of when I received the call from Alanis. I was driving to the dump with my roommate and I saw her name pop up on my phone. Of course I recognized the name because I’ve followed her work for years. I lowkey panicked from excitement and picked up the phone. (I know b...ad choice cause I was driving but my brain went blank) So I answer and Alanis tells me I won this award and that she watched a handful of my films. I was at a loss for words, forgetting that I’m even driving, then I look to my left and there’s a police car with their lights on and the cop is waving me down. I thank Alanis but tell her I have to go. I pull over and my heart is racing. I just won this really big award and this is also my first time ever being pulled over. I roll down the window and shakily show my ID. I tell the cop that I’m sorry but I just got good news. Thankfully he was cool about it and congratulated me and let me off with a warning. Long story short: Miigwetch to the world for having my back, and chi-miigwetch to Alanis for bestowing this recognition upon me.

Our short documentary BECOMING NAKUSET is available for streaming on CBC GEM and YOUTUBE starting today! A big shout out again to Nakuset for sharing her story.... This documentary is about the 60s Scoop and how it has impacted indigenous identity. Another shout out to Daniel Roher, Felicity Justrabo, and Lesley Birchard for making sure this film is seen far and wide. Also big thanks to Matthew Chalmers and Charlie Shekter for helping make this film come to life. CBC GEM: https://cbcgem.app/Z7FqS3XmQXT5PSqY8 YouTube: https://youtu.be/9P4iYYL4FYY The CBC Gem version is only available in Canada, YouTube is available worldwide.

I’m very excited and grateful to be able to share this article that we’re featured in for @thewalleye. I did the interview alongside @biggieschmals for our project @tenayafilm It’s a project that’s near and dear to our entire team’s heart and to be published first thing for the new year only gives me further hope in regards to the journey ahead. Link to the article in my bio!

Thanks Wawatay News for the feature!

I'm a little late in posting about this with all of lifes things happening but.....our film BECOMING NAKUSET won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film a...t imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival this year! I'm very proud of the whole team involved and our hardworking producers Felicity Justrabo and Daniel Roher. I'd like to thank CBC Docs, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Lesley Birchard, BMO Financial Group, and especially Nakuset for sharing her story with us and the world. You can stream it on CBC Gem coming early 2021. Make sure to keep an eye out for it! (Also, lol I'm well aware of the mispronunciations.) Check out imagineNATIVE's twitter to see my acceptance speech.

I'm excited to announce the first public screening of The Hurt That Binds Us. It's been touring over the past year and a half at private screenings, but this will be it's first public online screening for the entire film. It will be playing as a part of the North Bay Film Festival alongside Tasha Hubbard's nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up. It will be available online as a package starting Sunday, November 15th starting at 11am EST for 12 hours. The festival is FREE, but yo...u must make sure to claim a ticket to receive access to the film. I want to thank everyone who's been patiently waiting to see this film. I also want to thank my family again for sharing their story so openly and willingly. You have no idea how much this film will help others and how powerful and brave each one of you are. You are making a change in this world to be able to speak your truths. I love you all very much. Make sure to cast your vote as it's eligible for the audience choice award!