Ruffo’s first film featured Sept. 27 on APTN

September 13, 2013
Screen capture of 'A Windigo Tale'. Two stories woven together. A grandfather drives north with his troubled grandson, who comes to learn about the dark secrets of his family and community. And in a village, an estranged mother and daughter must reunite to exorcise the voracious Windigo spirit tied to a painful past. Filmed on Six Nations Reserve and in the Ottawa Valley, 'A Windigo Tale' is both a chilling and redeeming drama.
Screen capture of ‘A Windigo Tale’. Two stories woven together. A grandfather drives north with his troubled grandson, who comes to learn about the dark secrets of his family and community. And in a village, an estranged mother and daughter must reunite to exorcise the voracious Windigo spirit tied to a painful past. Filmed on Six Nations Reserve and in the Ottawa Valley, ‘A Windigo Tale’ is both a chilling and redeeming drama.

OTTAWA – Anishinaabe writer Armand Ruffo’s first feature film, “A Windigo Tale”, will be a featured Friday night movie Sept. 27 on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

Adopted by Ruffo from a play he wrote in 2001, “A Windigo Tale” has won a number of awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress at the 35th American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, Best Picture at the Dream Speaker’s Film Festival in Edmonton and Peoples’ Choice Award at the Baystreet Film Festival in Thunder Bay.  It was also selected to close the prestigious ImagineNative Film Festival in Toronto.  It has since gone on to screen both nationally and internationally.

The fictional story revolves around a road trip in which a Native grandfather, Harold, played by Gary Farmer, who is desperate to save his troubled grandson Curtis from a life on the street, shares the dark secrets of their family and community.  Focusing on the intergenerational impact of the residential school experience, the story Harold tells involves an estranged mother and daughter who must reunite to exorcise the dreaded Windigo spirit that is tied to their family’s painful past of abuse. According to Anishinaabe lore, the Windigo is a malevolent, supernatural spirit that can possess and transform people into greedy, cannibalistic creatures.

Armand Garnet Ruffo was born in Chapleau with roots to the Biscotasing branch of the Sagamok First Nation and the Chapleau Fox Lake Cree First Nation.  He is currently a professor of Aboriginal Literature and Creative Writing at Carleton University in Ottawa.  He is the author of Grey Owl: the Mystery of Archie Belaney and At Geronimo’s Grave, and he has just completed a creative biography on the acclaimed Ojibway painter Norval Morrisseau.