Rustic Oracle gains international traction, growing awareness on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO — Nish Media’s award-winning dramatic film, Rustic Oracle, about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is gaining recognition internationally with awards and a distribution deal.
Reel 2 Reel Films Limited will release the film by Mohawk filmmaker Sonia Bonspille Boileau on all platforms in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland in the second quarter of 2021, including a limited theatrical run in the US. It has also been recognized with 27 national and international awards, including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards at the 2019 American Indian Film Festival Awards.
“We had always hoped that the film would find some interest outside of Canada,” says Jason Brennan, producer of Rustic Oracle, co-owner of Nish Media and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg citizen. “For us, [the international distribution deal] is a really nice added bonus because we always wanted the film to be seen outside of Canada.”
Brennan says it is important to raise more awareness about the issue of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls with an international audience.
“We wanted to bring awareness that it’s a lot bigger than people think,” Brennan says. “When we travelled with the film outside of Canada, that is one thing that was brought up by audiences is that [they] didn’t know there was that many [Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) or that this was this big of an issue because it’s kind of like Canada’s dirty little secret.”
Brennan says a photo of a person in Portland, Oregon, who looked like one of two young girls who disappeared from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg about 10-12 years ago, was recently shared in the community, but unfortunately, it was not the missing girl.
“The woman who was found basically had no recognition of who she was,” Brennan says. “The SQ (Sûreté du Québec) went out to Portland to figure out who the young woman was and it wasn’t her, but even after all this time, I think that was one of the messages we wanted to get across is these women aren’t forgotten either.”
Carmen Moore, a Wet’suwet’en actor, was recognized with the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2019 American Indian Film Festival Awards for her role as the missing girl’s mother in the film. She says it was “cool” to be recognized with the award, noting the awards ceremony was held online this year due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
“I thought it was a very important story to tell and I was really inspired by Sonia Bonspille Boileau’s take on the story; telling it from the perspective of the eight-year-old girl and really focusing on what the families actually experience and go through in situations like this,” Moore says. “Sonia has mentioned that the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls epidemic has become really political over the years and people have lost sight of the fact that there are real people that are experiencing this or real mothers grieving the loss of their daughters and their families are left confused and devastated wondering what happened to these women. I like that Sonia was able to create a world where you feel like you’re actually walking through these experiences with the family and understanding it from that perspective.”
Lake Delisle was recognized with the Best Actress award at the 2019 American Indian Film Festival Awards for her role as the missing girl’s sister.
Rustic Oracle is available in Canada on VOD, including Apple TV, Bell ON Demand, Cinema Moderne, Cogeco, Videotron on Demand and Vimeo on Demand.