Short film brings attention to epidemic of murdered, missing women

How can you portray the tragedy of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in a 60-second film? That is the challenge facing co-directors Jesse Gouchey and Xstine Cook.

Earlier this year, the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto put out a call to Aboriginal artists across the country, looking for five one-minute films about murdered and missing women in Canada. Gouchey and Cook had produced the short film “Spirit of the Bluebird” last year, using time-lapse filming of spray-painted murals to tell the story. It won Best Short Documentary at the festival, so they were invited to participate again in 2012.

This time, Gouchey and Cook chose to focus on five specific cases where the families were willing to share their stories. The original intent was to paint murals in their home communities showing the family all together, and then the missing woman would disappear from the picture.

“It’s a way for us to give the family some dignity, and maybe even some hope in finding these women and bringing them home again,” said Gouchey.

While Gouchey is the artist, the legwork in finding families willing to share their stories was Cook’s job. One of the first paintings features Gouchey’s own aunt, Martha Gaucher, a part of his family history that he had never been told before. Her poignant mural is painted at the Friendship Centre in Red Deer.

Bridget Tolley, of Ottawa, provided her mother’s picture for the film project. Gladys Tolley was struck and killed by a Quebec police car in 2001, and her daughter is still working to see justice done.

Jacqueline Crazy Bull, 44, was one of five people stabbed during a spree of violence during the Calgary Stampede in 2007. Her sister, Sandra Many Feathers, is passionate about participating in the film project.

Maisy Odjick, 16, and her friend Shannon Alexander disappeared from their home in Quebec on Sept. 5, 2008. Maisy’s mother gave her permission to the project through Tolley and Sisters in Spirit.

And finally, Tiffany Morrison was 24 years old when she disappeared on June 18, 2006, near her home in Kahnawake. Her remains were found and identified through dental records four years later.

None of these cases has been resolved, and the families are still waiting for justice to be done.

One of the difficulties with the murals, says Cook, is that some of the families don’t have control of a piece of property where the mural can be painted. Sandra Many Feathers suggested a solution to that. “What if you painted us a banner that we could bring to the vigils with us?” she said, and the idea took root.
Gouchey’s aunt will be represented by a mural, but the rest will be painted on banners.

“In the end, the banner will be just as meaningful to the family,” said Cook.

In all, there will be five short films about murdered and missing women done for the 13th annual imagineNATIVE Festival, which runs from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21 in Toronto. They will be aired on the Toronto transit system during the festival and will also run across the country in shopping malls and airports.

 “It’s bound to turn some heads,” said Gouchey, “and people are going to be a little more aware of what, to me, is a big crisis out there. As long as it changes people’s opinions and opens their eyes, that’s something I really want to achieve with this.”