New sales division Indican International launches at EFM with trio of films by Canadian First Nations directors

Exclusive: Avi Federgreens Canadian distribution company Indiecan Entertainment has launched an international sales division that will debut at Berlinale’s EFM.

Bannered Indican International, the division’s debut line-up features three films by directors from First Nations communities in Canada and a UK documentary about a man with cerebral palsy (scroll down for details).

The much talked about creation of Indican International was based on Redwater Entertainment’s creation of Indican Entertainment last May, a new distribution arm focused on genre films.

“Indican International is a natural extension of what I started with Indican Entertainment,” said Federgreen, who will remain at EFM with his team.

“My goal with Indican International, like Redwater Entertainment, is to help independent filmmakers and marginalized voices get as much exposure as possible for their stories,” he explained.

Among the first titles on the Indian International slate is Jules Arita Kustachin’s play broken angel About a once vibrant Cree woman who is worn down by an abusive partner.

Kustachin is a member of the Attawapiskat First Nation and grew up with Cree-speaking grandparents in Musoni and her mother in Ottawa.

The slate also includes Kustachin’s short sci-fi fantasy Mystique Following the journey of the two remaining members of the human race, the Kree twins, NiiPii (water) and SiiPii (river), as they carry the planet’s last healthy tree on their backs in search of hope and renewal.

The line-up also includes Jason Brennan’s thriller inhumane About a brilliant neurosurgeon whose perfect life is shattered by divorce, substance abuse and a mid-life crisis.

When her father dies suddenly she is forced to return home to Anishinaabe territory, a place she has tried to avoid since her youth, to perform the ritual of burying his ashes on their ancestral land.

The trip takes a terrifying turn when he believes himself to be possessed by an evil creature known as the Wendigo.

Brennan Kittigan is a member of GB’s First Nations community and was born to an Algonquin father and a Quebecois mother.

The opening slate also features UK documentary Carl Woods my everest About a disabled man who embarks on a mission to climb Mount Everest Base Camp on horseback to prove his worth.

As the reality of the search begins to dawn on him and puts his body through incredible pain, he is forced to dive deep within himself and question his true motivations.

The film was produced by Annika Ranin and Jasmine Morrison of London-based Unmannered Limited, as well as Woods for Birmingham-based Jedmil and Sandra Spaethman.