| HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | The Dreamspeakers Film Festival was founded in 1995 in Edmonton, Alberta. It was one of the earliest film festivals in North America devoted to Indigenous films and filmmakers.
The festival is managed by the Dreamspeakers Festival Society, which has a stated mission to “support and educate the public about Aboriginal culture, art and heritage. It is a resource for Aboriginal filmmakers, directors, scriptwriters, cameramen, technicians, actors, musicians, storytellers, artists and craftspeople. The society is also a resource bank – a way to get in touch with Aboriginal filmmakers, performers and artists. And through Dreamspeakers, Aboriginal people receive training in arts, culture and festival operations.”
The Dreamspeakers Film Festival has offered a variety of programs including film screenings, Dreamspeakers on Tour featuring short films created by youth, Dreamspeakers Youth Day, panel discussions, and the Walk of Honour, which was created as a tribute to Indigenous artists who have had influential careers in film and television. The Walk of Honour is located in Beaver Hills House Park in downtown Edmonton.
The film festival is held annually at various theatres in Edmonton and features feature-length and short films/television programs created by Indigenous filmmakers from Alberta, across Canada, and globally.
The Dreamspeakers Festival Society is governed by a board of directors and managed by an executive director and support staff.
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| SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The fonds consists of administrative records and audiovisual records of films submitted to the film festival.
The administrative records include festival programs, files for individual film submissions, society bylaws, executive director reports, publicity files, board of director minutes and correspondence, Walk of Honour correspondence and files, and fundraising/sponsorship files.
The majority of audiovisual records consist of submissions for the film festival. Selected submissions include those that were chosen for the festival and many that were rejected but are representative of Indigenous filmmaking across Alberta and Canada, with a smaller sample of international submissions.
The audiovisual records also include films made as part of the Dreamspeakers youth programs, recordings of festival proceedings, advertisements, and a small collection of recorded music by Indigenous Canadian performers.
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