Savage, a short film by Lisa Jackson

Encore+ YouTube channel partners with imagineNATIVE to launch Indigenous films collection

I just watched Savage (2009), a short film written and directed by Lisa Jackson, inspired by the choreography of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, complete with zombies, a lullaby sung in Cree, and a lesson on the Canadian residential school system. In only a few minutes I felt emotions from comfort, fear, anger, to an intense sadness – a range that would usually take a good two hours to produce. The film was posted to Encore+ only three days ago as part of a new partnership which makes Indigenous media more accessible to Canadians and audiences around the world.

Encore+, a YouTube channel dedicated to streaming memorable Canadian film and TV shows from the past, just announced a new partnership with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival that allows public access to feature films and shorts by some of Canada’s most accomplished filmmakers.

The collaboration will see the launch of the collection from imagineNATIVE, the world’s largest festival of film, video, audio and digital and interactive media made by Indigenous screen content creators, on Encore+. The channel will stream a curated selection of films from Canada’s top Indigenous filmmakers, including Zacharias Kunuk, Michelle Latimer, Kent Monkman and Alanis Obomsawin.

Audiences are now able to see a playlist consisting of ?E? ANX (The Cave) by Helen Haig-Brown, about a hunter on horseback who “accidentally discovers a portal to another world in this fantastical true Tsilhqot’in story,” which received a rating of eight out of 10 on IMDb.com. Choke by Michelle Latimer, File Under Miscellaneous by Jeff Barnaby, Inuit Cree Reconciliation by Zacharias Kunuk and Neil Diamond, My Legacy by Helen Haig-Brown, Prayer for a Good Day by Zoe Leigh Hopkins, Rocks at Whisky Trench by Alanis ObomsawinShooting Geronimo by Kent Monkman, Wapawekka by Danis Goulet and Savage by Lisa Jackson.

Encore+ is spearheaded by the Canada Media Fund, whose president and CEO Valerie Creighton said, “the new partnership will ensure these films are more accessible to audiences in Canada and around the world.” The channel also receives support from Google Canada, Bell Media, BroadbandTV (BBTV), and Deluxe Toronto, with Telefilm Canada playing a key role in providing finance and promotion.

The audience on YouTube can browse hundreds of Canadian movies and TV shows, comedies, dramas, romance, children’s shows, documentaries, short films, and feature films from the past in English and French on Encore+.


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