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Created during a residency at Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC), Whittle’s Bringing the Land to the City honours the essential elements of the planet: air, water, earth and fire. It draws us across creeks, waterfalls and inland woods, through fire, to the wind and the ocean using slow motion and sound to create a hypnotic connection to each element. The land speaks for itself with the underlying sound of the creek – a soundscape making its way through the scenes and holding a space of continuity, of the journey towards the ocean and renewal. The whales keep history. Slow motion framing encourages viewers to discover their own relationships with the elements. This film is a tribute to the land, the air, the waters and the fire from Whittle’s Newfoundland and Labrador Mi’kmaq/Beothuk homeland to the Algonquin territory where Whittle has been a guest for half of her life.
This film was produced during DARC’s Indigenous Media Artist Residency with the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation
This was a free event and the artist was in attendance.
Carmel Whittle is a Mi’kmaq/Irish artist, independent filmmaker and musician from Newfoundland & Labrador. Film projects include co-directing and co-writing with Howard Adler the documentary film 1 Contrary 5 Agokwe-nini, exploring gender, sexuality, Indigenous identity, and traditional two-spirit roles; creating the experimental short film, You’ve Been Served: a visual and audio deconstruction of power and authority; and working as assistant editor for Eric Walker’s (Souriquois Metis film maker) latest film In L’acadie Ke’pek. Her recent filmmaking residency with Saw Video included the land-art project On Our Land (2019), an exploration of Indigenous identity, traditions and ceremony; and the film Bringing the Land to the City: (2020), a land-based art film expressing the power and beauty of the earth.
Her work as a cultural community artist and Indigenous liaison supports her striving and thriving in decolonialized community arts, and she has animated discussion groups specific to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls To Action in the arts. She is founder of the Indigenous Artists Coalition and a member of the Thunderbird Sisters Collective and the Multicultural Artists Coalition. A recent community project includes the No Borders Art Festival, developed, co-directed and co-curated with the Indigenous and Multicultural Artists Coalitions in collaboration with community partners Saw Video, Artengine, G101, the Thunderbird Sisters and the Eagle & Condor Collective.
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