Titled NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind), the short drama was lauded by imagineNATIVE’s Moon Jury as an “incredibly moving story that brings you to tears” and “viscerally” connects the audience to its characters’ experiences.

“From the first frame, you are watching cinematic beauty from a filmmaker who understands the medium of cinema and knows how to conjure the spiritual element that sits within the most beautiful of our Indigenous cinematic offerings,” the jury writes. “Lindsay’s unique cinematic voice and talent is as clear and heartfelt as the South Wind it comes from.”

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, is based on a true story told to Lindsay by her grandmother, has collected more than a half dozen awards and screened at more than 25 festivals internationally.

“It feels like a real honour, especially when you look individually at the communities where the awards come from,” Lindsay says. “It also feels like care that people are paying attention to the film and to the story, seeking it out and programming it thoughtfully. That’s hugely important because it means the story I’m trying to tell does matter and people are interested in it. And because NIGIQTUQ is a concept piece for a longer feature, I know people are listening and paying attention, which means a lot to me.”

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ connects to Lindsay’s upcoming feature, The Words We Can’t Speak, which Lindsay is currently focusing on during her time this year as a Sundance Fellow in the Native Lab.

In October, the film took home the Best Live Action Short Award at imagineNATIVE. The Live Action Short Award is imagineNATIVE’s Oscar–qualifying category, meaning NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ is moving forward to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 2025 award consideration.

It has also earned the EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Short at the Whistler Film Festival presented by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists; awards for Outstanding Short Drama, Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Production Design and Outstanding Performance (Ensemble Cast) from the Film And Video Arts Society of Alberta; and the Best Indigenous Short Award at the Arizona International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for Best Narrative Short and Best Actress (Brenda Amaklak Putulik) at the Madrid Film Awards, for the Social Impact Award at the Vancouver Short Film Festival and for Best Actor (Lindsay Robinson), Best Actress (Brenda Putulik) and Best Indigenous Short at the Red Brick Road Festival in Oklahoma.

“It’s been an incredible honour,” Lindsay says, reflecting on the recognition this deeply personal work has received. “To me, it shows you just have to keep working towards the things that matter. It’s a really powerful thing to tell a story. You always have to remember that.”

The narrative reveals a type of benevolent racism that at once aims to erase Indigeneity and all its markers while purporting that it’s “for their own good”.

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, which translates to “South Eastern Wind,” refers to an Inuit concept which celebrates positive change but also carries a caution.

“The south wind may bring blue skies and better conditions, but there’s also a sense of warning or a need to be present, because you can’t forget that the wind will always change back,” Lindsay says. This metaphor underscores Lindsay’s broader project of foregrounding an overlooked chapter in Canadian history.

“We know about residential schools and some of the other big ugly colonial wrongs, but we don’t often think about Inuit in the same way,” she says. “We don’t think about what the world was like for Inuit when the RCMP and the traders and the whalers and the missionaries showed up. My grandmother was an interpreter and servant to the RCMP in the early days of colonial interest so her story embodies how all of these different communities came together in a colonial context. And it’s unique because it was especially rare for an Inuk woman to be included in police business.”

Though NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ takes shape as a more traditionally structured drama, it still includes Lindsay’s signature artistic engagement with the materiality of film. For instance, the work was almost entirely shot through broken glass filters. These kinds of experimental formal approaches aim to ground Lindsay’s stories conceptually, by considering every aspect of filmmaking as an opportunity to treat her subject responsibly and with sensitivity.

For example, an upcoming film titled Tuktuit explores the importance of caribou to Inuit survival, as well as to Lindsay’s grandmother, who was said to have been able to “skin a caribou before it hit the ground.” The film also traces Lindsay’s own learning around how to skin and process a caribou in a customary way. From that animal’s hide, Lindsay will make gelatin which will then be used to produce the emulsion her film will be shot and printed on. Meaning the film itself will actually contain the DNA of a caribou.

“For me, a work isn’t satisfying unless there’s some connection between the form and the content,” she says. “That connection between things is usually what I’m striving for in the work that I make.”

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September, 2023, and has also been programmed at the Anchorage International Film Festival, Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival, Buenos Aires International Film Festival, Skábmagovat Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, Weengushk, Arizona International, Maoriland, Aulajut Nunavut International Film Festival and Dreamspeakers. The film also appeared in a retrospective of Lindsay’s works at the Berkeley Museum and Pacific Film Archive as part of their Alternative Visions series. Titled Seeing Them: The Films of Lindsay McIntyre, the program brought together eight of Lindsay’s films from the past 15 years.

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ was written and directed by Lindsay, and produced by Lindsay and Katrina Beatty. The film features cinematography by Wes Miron, with key cast including Brenda Amakłak Putulik, Naomi Ullikata Natseck and Lindsay Robinson. Support for NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and COUSIN Collective.

Visit Lindsay’s website and follow her on Instagram to learn more about her work.

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ is also slated for upcoming screenings, including at the Native Cinema Showcase at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, LA SKINS FEST, Cucalorus, and Pocahontas Reframed in Richmond, VA. The film is also currently on Air Canada Inflight Entertainment.

Text by Perrin Grauer, Emily Carr University Press

https://www.ecuad.ca/news/2024/lindsay-mcintyres-nigiqtuq-ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ-earns-festival-award-praise