Tkaronto

Tkaronto is a Canadian drama film, which premiered in 2007 at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. Directed by Shane Belcourt, the film went into commercial release in the summer of 2008.[1]

Tkaronto
Directed byShane Belcourt
Produced byShane Belcourt
Duane Murray
Jordan O'Connor
Michael Corbiere
Written byShane Belcourt
StarringDuane Murray
Melanie McLaren
Lorne Cardinal
Music byJordan O'Connor
CinematographyShane Belcourt
Edited byJordan O'Connor
Distributed byKinosmith
Release date
  • 2007 (2007)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

The film, named for the Mohawk word from which the name of the city of Toronto is derived, stars Duane Murray and Melanie McLaren as Ray Morrin and Jolene Peltier, who meet while in Toronto on business. Ray, a Métis cartoonist from Vancouver, is in town to pitch an animated series called Indian Jones to a television network, and Jolene, an Anishinaabe artist from Los Angeles, is in town to paint a portrait of Max (Lorne Cardinal), a local indigenous elder.

The film's cast also includes Cheri Maracle, Jeff Geddis, Mike McPhaden, Rae Ellen Bodie, Jonah Allison, Abby Zotz and Tricia Williams.

Themes

Ray and Jolene experience a common struggle: as creative professionals living in big cities, they share a sense of disconnection from their indigenous heritage. Both struggle with the question of how to live as an indigenous person in an urban setting devoid of many of the stereotypical signifiers of indigenous identity. Neither was raised with the language, religion and customs of their ancestors; Jolene doesn't even know how to pray. Both are also in relationships with non-indigenous partners: Ray, whose girlfriend is pregnant, is ambivalent about becoming a father, while Jolene's husband is dismissive of her search for a deeper sense of her heritage.

As their attraction to each other grows, Ray and Jolene are forced to confront the choice of whether to throw away their current lives in order to be together.

In a 2008 interview, Belcourt told The Globe and Mail that the film's themes were inspired by conversations with his sister Christi and a friend of hers, Inuit rock singer Lucie Idlout, about how they balanced their own indigenous identities with their urban lifestyles.[1]

Production

Produced by The Breath Films in conjunction with Braincloud Films, the film was shot in just 19 days and completed on a budget of just $20,000.[2]

Reviews

The film was reviewed by Jason Anderson at Eye Weekly, who wrote "The quality of writer-director Shane Belcourt's feature debut – named after our city's original Mohawk name – is all the more remarkable when you consider that it was made in six months on a measly budget of $20,000. Based on Belcourt's experience as the son of a Métis father, the movie portrays the crises of Jolene and Ray (Duane Murray), two thirty-somethings who can't figure out a way to square up their urban lifestyles and material ambitions with what an elder (played by Lorne Cardinal) calls “blood memory.” But for all of Tkaronto's heavy themes, the film has a sense of lightness that makes it one of the year's most appealing local indie features."[3]

References
  1. Jennie Punter, "'I didn't have time to filter': A Métis filmmaker reveals the inspiration for his impressive debut feature" Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Globe and Mail, August 14, 2008.
  2. Thulasi Srikanthan, "Caught between two worlds", Ottawa Citizen, August 9, 2008.
  3. Eye Weekly, Toronto, written by Jason Anderson, Published October 18th, 2007
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