Haida Raid 3 wins Best Music Video at ImagiNATIVE

Happy to report that Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters won Best Aboriginal Music Video at the 2014 ImagiNATIVE Film Festival. We've had a lot of challenges with this production, including working with limited funds, limited time, and dealing with a hard drive crash that lost us a lot of footage. Kudos to director Amanda Strong for pulling together what we had to make a winning video!

Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters premieres at ImagiNATIVE

We premiered Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters yesterday at the ImagiNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto. The animation was screened with a series of documentaries on water. Amanda Strong and I were both in attendance and we did a short Q & A at the end of the session. HR3 was well received and it was a nice contrast to the documentaries. Amanda has a few more small tweaks to do in post production and I expect we'll be uploading the completed animation some time soon. We are also exploring the possibility of having the animation broadcast on television.

I am pleased to announce that we've just released the Nuu (Octopus) story online today (as it happens, the day after Indigenous Peoples Day). Nuu was a real labour of love and I am thankful to my many collaborators for their help in bringing the project to completion. I'd like to say a special Haw'aa to Jaalen and Gwaai Edenshaw, Danny Dee, and Shannon Reynolds for their respective roles in the production. Nuu won an honourable mention at last year's ImagiNATIVE Film Festival. This year, we will be premiering Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters at ImagiNATIVE on Oct. 24th.

In the meantime, please sit down and relax and watch the Nuu (Octopus) story. And, if you are a Haida language learner, you may want to watch the version with Xaad Kil subtitles. Enjoy!

We are pleased to announce that Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters will be premiering at the 2014 ImagiNATIVE Film Festival on Friday Oct. 24th at 12:30 pm in Toronto. We will upload HR3 to the Haidawood YouTube channel shortly after the premiere. Haw'aa for your patience!

It's taken longer than anticipated to bring Haida Raid 3 to closure. The Indiegogo campaign was more work that any of us expected. And, during the first production shoot in June we had a hard drive fail and lost some scenes. In the end, we had to ship many of the sets and puppets from Masset down to Vancouver to complete the shooting. This is our first time working with Metis director Amanda Strong, aka, Spotted Fawn. I have been impressed with her perseverance, in spite of the obstacles the production has faced. I am looking forward to being in Toronto for the big day!