Florent Vollant

In her new documentary, Elisapie Isaac takes us on a visual and musical jaunt across the country, meeting the people who inspired the songs on her latest album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl.

The soul of the Innu language is embodied in the territory, the water and the forest, witnesses to the rapid disappearance of the caribou. Florent Vollant’s music continues to carry this language throughout the world.

In fall 2018, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal created the chamber opera Chaakapesh, a lighthearted story of the hero who founded the Innu people sung in three languages (Innu, Cree and Inuktitut) by Florent Vollant, Ernest Webb and Akinisie Sivuarapik. The orchestra then went on the road to perform the unique work in Quebec’s Far North, stopping in Kuujjuaq, Salluit, Kuujjuarapik, Oujé-Bougoumou, Mashteuiatsh and Maliotenam. Far more than just a concert film, Chaakapesh puts the audience front row centre as artists and communities come together in a remarkable cultural space. Poignant testimonials, important discussions and Maestro Nagano as we’ve never seen him before.

Dave, an urban aboriginal in his early twenties, is a Montreal actor. His adoption at the age of 3 has erased all memory of his Native culture. When he receives his first-ever contact with his biological mother through a photo in the mail, Dave leaves for Kinogamish, the reserve where he was born. The reunion does not unfold as expected and Dave becomes disoriented, confronted with a world that seems hostile and foreign. His unplanned return to this desolate community causes upheavals and chain reactions, while dredging up a painful past scarred by secrets and lies.

Arising from several stays in First Nations and Inuit communities, Foretelling the Land is an introspective movie about our relationship to reserves, both Indigenous and natural, and to the colonization of land and of thought.

Florent Vollant, an iconic musician of the Innu nation, feels the urgent need to tell his story like never before. Co-founder of the celebrated duo Kashtin, renowned for his acclaimed solo albums and as a political activist in defense of his culture, Florent now has limited mobility due to a stroke. As he enters a new chapter of his life, he remains committed to creating, transmitting and dreaming up new projects.

The origins and evolution of the Innu Nikamu Music and Aboriginal Arts Festival are intimately linked to the territorial roots of the Innu people and to the life of the Maliotenam Reserve community. For centuries past the Innu had followed a seasonal migration cycle, wintering in the northern territories for the caribou hunt and returning every summer to the north shore of the St-Lawrence. Festivities, meetings, traditional games and weddings marked the latter period, and the Festival has become the modern day reincarnation of the ancient summer celebration.

In the '60s, the Mushuau Innu had to abandon their 6,000-year nomadic culture and settle in Davis Inlet. Their relocation resulted in cultural collapse and widespread despair.