Kayak to Klemtu
Kayak to Klemtu is a Canadian drama film, directed by Zoe Leigh Hopkins and released in 2017.[1] The film stars Ta'Kaiya Blaney as Ella, a teenage First Nations girl from Vancouver who decides following the death of her uncle Bear (Evan Adams) to take up his activism against a proposed pipeline development, and undertakes a 500-kilometre kayak trip to the family's ancestral home at Klemtu to testify at the pipeline hearings.[2]
| Kayak to Klemtu | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Zoe Leigh Hopkins |
| Produced by | Daniel Bekerman |
| Written by | Zoe Leigh Hopkins Scooter Corkle Michael Sparaga |
| Starring | Ta'Kaiya Blaney Sonja Bennett Evan Adams |
| Music by | Oleksa Lozowchuk |
| Cinematography | Vince Arvidson |
| Edited by | Simone Smith |
Production company | Scythia Films |
| Distributed by | Mongrel Media |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
The film's cast also includes Sonja Bennett, Carmel Armit, Tyler Burrows, Jared Ager-Foster and Lorne Cardinal.
The film premiered on October 20, 2017 at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival,[3] where it won the Audience Choice Award.[4] It went into commercial release in 2018.[1]
At the 2018 Leo Awards, Blaney won the award for Best Actress and Bennett won the award for Best Supporting Actress.[5]
References
- Alison Gillmor, "Movie pushes environmental message: Kayak to Klemtu a protest against supertankers, pipelines in First Nations territories". Winnipeg Free Press, August 11, 2018.
- Chris Knight, "Kayak to Klemtu makes for a well-meaning movie that doesn’t quite work". National Post, May 25, 2018.
- Michelle Ruby, "Curtain rises on film fest; ImagineNative sees strong representation from Six Nations". Brantford Expositor, October 19, 2017.
- "‘Kayak to Klemtu’ wins imagineNATIVE Audience Choice Award". Alberta Native News, October 25, 2017.
- Sabrina Furminger, "Pipeline protests fuel family film". Vancouver Courier, July 17, 2018.