ʔetsu
Catalogue Number: TM0001
Producer: Trevor Mack
Producers: Mack, Trevor
Directors: Mack, Trevor
Producing Agencies: Trevor Mack
Subject: Canadian History, Canadian Social Studies, Documentary, First Nations Studies, Guidance, Health, History, Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Peoples, Psychology, Social Issues, Social Sciences
Language: English
Grade Level: Post Secondary, Adult
Country Of Origin: Canada
Copyright Year: 2017
Running Time: 13:01
On an isolated reserve a young boy with no family structure struggles to search for a connection to his deceased grandmother through an old VHS camcorder. This visually creative short film from Tsilhqot’in filmmaker Trevor Mack (Clouds of Autumn) examines family, death and child suicide.
ʔEtsu translates into grandmother, in Tsilhqot’in, and the film paints a first-person narrative of a young Indigenous boy dealing with the death of his beloved grandmother.
Through the use of “data moshing” where pixelated images seem to show his grandmother passing through the film towards the boy, Mack’s film is intimate and heart wrenching.
Warning: Film contains strong language and suicide content.
Official Selection – TIFF; Vancouver International Film Festival
“Through discordant pixelated images, Trevor Mack delicately reveals the trauma and devastation that too many Indigenous children in remote communities are forced to contend with.” - DANIS GOULET
“...a meditation on family, memory and generational pain with a striking visual aesthetic...” — NORM WILNER, NOW MAGAZINE
Related Titles
Out of the Shadows, Into the Arms of Community: Urban Native Girl
Animiki See Distribution Inc. AS0122Lisa’s father, a former Tsihlqot’in Chief and Residential School Survivor, committed suicide...
Warrior Fathers
Hidden Story Productions Ltd. HS0009Thomas Snow, a Stoney Nakoda father searches his upbringing for wisdom on parenting his two...
Clouds of Autumn
Trevor Mack TM0000Set on the Tsilhqot'in plateau in the 1970s, Clouds of Autumn focuses on a young Indigenous boy...
Return to Manomin
Thunderstone Pictures TP0001Guided by the spirit of her grandmother and the wisdom of her aging uncle, filmmaker Michelle...