Film from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek member to screen nationally in theatres
By Sam Laskaris
ATIKAMEKSHENG ANISHNAWBEK FIRST NATION – Darlene Naponse is thrilled one of her films is set to take its next step.
Naponse, a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation near Sudbury, is the director of STELLAR, which is opening in theatres across the country on Sept. 22.
STELLAR had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The film was also screened at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival last fall.
Additionally it was shown at various other festivals throughout Canada, the United States and even Finland.
Naponse is pleased STELLAR is now set for a theatrical run, primarily at Cineplex locations in Sudbury, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Victoria.
“We’re excited that people are going to experience it on screen in the theatres,” Naponse said. “That’s the excitement about making a film – just going to the cinema is that wonder and beauty of going to the cinema. But then I really love that people can experience this on a full screen while the sound is surrounding them.”
STELLAR is an 86-minute contemporary Indigenous romance film based in northern Ontario. It features a pair of characters, known only as She (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers) and He (Braeden Clarke), who have a romantic connection in a bar while natural catastrophes are happening outside.
Tailfeathers is from Kainai Nation in Alberta while Clarke is a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, also in Alberta.
STELLAR was spawned from a short story Naponse had written.
“I wrote that several years ago,” she said. “I was going through a hard time in my relationship, that was a long relationship, and it was just in those moments. I was just trying to connect in some sense. So, I thought about these two peoples in this bar, kind of broken, trying to connect and it just kind of evolved from that.”
Naponse said while writing her story, and ensuing film, she was thinking about peoples’ pasts and how much they have to deal with. She added life can be even more challenging for an Indigenous person trying to find love while also living with historical trauma.
“I wanted to heighten that and put them in those moments,” Naponse said of her principal characters. “I hope that (viewers) really find the beauty and the hope in it. I really hope that they see the wonder about these two characters.”
In STELLAR, She and He are the main patrons of the bar. They ignore each other at first. But when they accidentally touch, a meteorite crashes onto the land. The resulting chaos outside the bar includes streaking fireballs and a tsunami.
Naponse was determined to write a film about more than just love.
“(It’s about) realistically talking about the larger issues on a different level and understanding people and perspectives,” she said. “It’s about love. It’s about touch. It’s about all those historical issues that affect us daily and how we navigate through life today.
“Adding the worlds of the magic realism and just being able to place their stories on so many different levels and in so many different worlds. So, when those worlds collide, it tells their stories, it tells their histories and it tells their future.”