Join us as the First Nations Film and Video Festival kicks off the new year with a screening of Rhymes for Young Ghouls, a feature-length drama directed by Jeff Barnaby.
Set on the Red Crow Mi’kMaq reservation in 1976, Rhymes for Young Ghouls explores the traumatic experiences of Canadian residential schools. By government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that means imprisonment at St. Dymphna’s, where students are under the mercy of “Popper,” the sadistic agent who runs the school.
At 15, Aila is the weed princess of Red Crow. Hustling with her uncle Burner, she sells enough dope to pay Popper her “truancy tax,” keeping her out of St. Dymphna’s. But when Aila’s drug money is stolen and her father Joseph returns from prison, the precarious balance of Aila’s world is destroyed. Her only options are to run or fight…and Mi’kmaq don’t run.
Please note: this film is rated R for violence, drug use, language, sexual references, and graphic nudity. It also contains content about traumatic experiences in Canadian residential schools.
The film will be followed by a discussion with Northern Arapaho filmmaker Ernest Whiteman III, Director of the First Nations Film and Video Festival.