Le diabète : comme un cadeau

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Poor dietary habits, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, have led to high incidences of obesity. These factors are believed to play a pivotal role in the onset of diabetes. Add to this the ever-increasing costs of drugs and treatments for a disease that has no cure and, clearly, a health crisis is close at hand. Ojibway filmmaker Brion Whitford lives with the pain of advanced diabetes. In 2001, complications from the disease left him with only 50 percent kidney function and blood sugar levels that were spiralling out of control. Having been raised in the city, Whitford grew up without knowing his culture or heritage. Consequently, he had little faith in traditional Indigenous medicine and healing. But the more his health deteriorated, the deeper his interest grew in connecting with his own culture and traditions. The Gift of Diabetes follows Whitford's struggle to regain his health by learning about The Medicine Wheel, a holistic tool grounded in an Indigenous understanding of the interconnectedness of all dimensions of life: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. He also explores how the historical trauma of colonization continues to exert a negative influence over Indigenous people's psychological and physical well-being. Only by making peace with this fact and his own troubled past can he move forward to a healthier and better life. Whitford's journey is a moving account of a man coming to grips with his own mortality, while trying to re-establish balance in his life.

Stuttering is as old as human speech. The biblical Moses stuttered. Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, King George VI and James Earl Jones were also afflicted with the disorder--yet it remains a medical enigma. Unspeakable examines the nature, history and treatment of a speech impediment that affects about 1% of the world's population regardless of language, culture, class or ethnicity. Throughout the ages there have been all sorts of explanations for what causes stuttering but attempts at curing it have been as frustrating as finding its cause. While stuttering inevitably causes emotional distress, which aggravates the disorder, there is no evidence that it is a personality disorder. Speech therapy for pre-schoolers who stutter can be quite effective but treatment for older children and adults is often frustrating and disappointing. John Paskievich, the film's director, is a person who stutters. He also narrates and is an active participant in the film. His story and the stories of others in the film are poignant, funny, angry and courageous, providing eloquent testimony to what it means to live imprisoned in what the poet W.H. Auden called "the tower of stutter." According to Paskievich, "the film is a call for liberation, not from stuttering, but from the ignorance and stigma that surround it.".

Ce documentaire de Gil Cardinal et Wil Campbell examine les programmes de spiritualité autochtone mis sur pied dans les établissements pénitentiaires fédéraux de l'Ouest canadien. Dirigés par des aînés autochtones, avec l'assistance d'agents de liaison, ces programmes comprennent des ateliers et des cérémonies qui contribuent à remettre les détenus en contact avec eux-mêmes, leur culture et leur spiritualité.