An Indigenous New Brunswick filmmaker is preparing to release Canada’s first full-length animated feature in the language of her ancestors, a project she hopes will help connect all Canadians.
“It is all in the Wolastoqey language and the Wolastoqey language is an endangered language. There are less than 100 fluent speakers,” said Tara Audibert, who owns Moxy Fox Studio, an animation studio in Red Bank First Nation.
Audibert said she is carrying on the age-old tradition of Indigenous storytelling, only in a more “modern” way.
“I wanted to tell these stories in a way that children are going to enjoy them and also so that adults are going to enjoy them,” she said.
The film called “QAQSOSS NAKA WAHUNTUHSIS (Fox & the Tiny Demon) features wide-eyed, whimsical characters addressing a very adult topic, Audibert said.
“It’s a story about a fox who is suffering from mental illness. She is trying to run away from her problems and, in that, she ends up running into this dark forest, which for me is a representation of depression,” she said.
The filmmaker is working with students in the animation program at NBCC Miramichi along with animators around the globe to complete the film, which will have a runtime of more than 70 minutes.
“For me it has a connection with residential schools,” Audibert said, “and looking at residential school survivors… and people that have to live with someone else who maybe is a residential school survivor who also has mental illness.”
Animation student Dusty Thibodeau is helping to bring the characters to life and said she relates to the topic. “This film may help some people find that they can find someone that they can connect with and go through some tough times in their lives and still have the support.”
Audibert said the film, once complete, will also be released with versions subtitled in English and in French. She said she hopes it will eventually be played in Canadian classrooms.
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