Vimeo selected Heather Condo’s My Father’s Toolsas its first ever Staff Pick Premiere. This is the first time since Vimeo launched its Staff Picks Premieres channel last year that a Native short is featured to make its global debut to hundreds of millions of monthly viewers. Not only is the first Indigenous Staff Pick Premiere a Canadian film, but it was also directed by a first-time female filmmaker. Go to https://vimeo.com/channels/premieres/244882764 to watch the film that will go live on November 29th.
My Father’s Tools (6 min 30) is an observational Canadian documentary directed by emerging filmmaker Heather Condo which had its international premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival before touring the world (Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent (Cannes and Berlinale), Seattle International Film Festival, ImagineNATIVE, DOXA, and over 50 others.) The story, which introduces Condo’s spouse Stephen Jerome, a traditional basket maker, is produced by Wapikoni mobile, a travelling audiovisual creation studio fully equipped with cutting-edge technology that visits Indigenous communities across Canada and Latin America to help spark the creativity of young Indigenous people. These videos become powerful tools for social change and are part of a journey towards reconciliation that also involves protecting the cultural heritage of Indigenous Nations.
Weaved in cinema vérité style, the story of My Father’s Tools shows the craftsmanship of the man from the Mi’gmaq First Nation community of Gesgapegiag in the province of Quebec, Canada. Stephen continues to create traditional baskets just like his ancestors did, honouring his father with each stroke, finding peace in his studio as he connects spiritually with the man who taught him this ancestral art form.