Cineworks Indigenous Filmmakers Bursary Recipient: Wayne Wapeemukwa

Cineworks is pleased to announce that Wayne Wapeemukwa has been awarded a Cineworks Annual Indigenous Filmmakers Bursary. Congratulations Wayne!

Wayne Wapeemukwa is an Indigenous (Michif) filmmaker and philosopher based in Canada. His debut feature, Luk’Luk’I, premiered at TIFF, where it won Best Canadian First Feature, as well as the DGC's Discovery Prize for Best New Director. His second feature, Manhunt, opened the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival, where it received Third Prize from the Junior Jury, and continues its international festival run.

With the assistance of the bursary, Wayne is planning to set out to complete a film project utilizing 16mm film to explore the relationship between buffalo, kinship, and land across Turtle Island and Iraq. Shooting in winter on a Cineworks Bolex, the project will combine observational footage of the buffalo and landscape with experimental time-exposure images of the northern lights and Mesopotamian marshes, mobilizing analog filmmaking approaches to reconnect ecological return, memory, and Indigenous relations to place.