Rogers Media announced today that its upcoming original Viceland series, Rise, produced in partnership with VICE Studio Canada and APTN, will debut three episodes in the Short-Form Episodic Series in the Special Events category at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Additional broadcast details for Rise on Viceland will be announced in the coming weeks.
“We are honoured to have Rise premiere at Sundance next year. There has never been a more urgent time to be telling these stories,” said Michelle Latimer, Algonquin/Métis filmmaker, Rise. “Rise is groundbreaking through its voicing of important issues around land, decolonization, and political governance told through an Indigenous point of view by showcasing the people who are leading this change globally.”
A condemnation of colonialism and a celebration of Indigenous people worldwide, Rise is a vibrant, gripping, and immersive documentary series that takes viewers to the frontlines of global Indigenous resistance. In two of the three episodes featured at Sundance, host Sarain Carson-Fox, of Anishinaabe lineage, will embark on a journey into Indigenous cultures to examine the social and political factors that threaten their liberation in the 21st century.
Along with an extended Q&A featuring Latimer, episodes to be screened at Sundance include: “Sacred Water,” focusing on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation where the largest gathering of Indigenous people in more than a century have come together to protect their water from the “black snake” of the Dakota Access Pipeline; “Apache Stronghold,” focusing on Arizona’s San Carlos Apache tribe and their stand to protect the sacred lands of Oak Flat; and “Red Power,” focusing on the evolution of the Red Power Movement. Using today’s unprecedented occupation at Standing Rock as a jumping off point, “Red Power” follows land protectors and warriors to chart the evolution of the Indigenous Resistance Movement from past to present.
“We are extremely proud to be providing a platform for Indigenous stories to be told to audiences both in Canada and around the world,” said Colette Watson, Senior Vice President of TV and Broadcast Operations at Rogers Media, in a press release. “To be included in the Sundance Film Festival is a testament to the heart and hard work that has gone into creating this series and will only serve to bring further awareness to this important narrative.”
