Windigo Tale

Project Description:

Armand Garnet Ruffo is an award-winning Canadian scholar, filmmaker, writer and poet of Anishinaabe-Ojibwe ancestry, and the author of the award-winning film ‘A Windigo Tale’.

In 2008, Ruffo was successful in acquiring funding to through RBC and the University of Carleton to produce his film and he wanted to shoot it at Six Nations. He chose a team of Hamilton and Toronto-based crew including Don Purser (DOP), Don Grunston (Sound), Tanis MacArthur (Wardrobe), led by Jeremy Freiburger and Steve McNamme as the producing body through Cobalt Connects, then then known as the Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts.

Our team gathered additional funding, managed contracting cast and crew, location scouting, partnerships with Six Nations food suppliers and talent, equipment rental, and eventually editing of the first phase of shooting. Completion shooting and editing was done in Ottawa where Ruffo was a professor, and the film was released in 2010. The film took three awards at the American Indian Movie Awards including: Best Film, Best Actress (Andrea Menard) and Best Supporting Actress (Jani Lauzon), and was the closing night feature of the 2010 ImagineNATIVE film Festival.

In addition to leading the production, Cobalt Connects also took this opportunity to create a training program for youth from Six Nations. In partnership with Indigenous Culture and Media Innovation and Six Nations Cable, the production hired 6 youth who were given an intensive hands-on experience on the film. The youth worked with different departments throughout the 4-weeks of production at Six Nations.

Client: Writer / Director Armand Ruffo, Carleton University

Collaborators: Writer / Director Armand Ruffo, Steven McNamee, Cast, Crew

Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWiSLJkE984

City: Ohsweken and Hamilton

Date: 2009