TIFF Interview with director: Darlene Naponse

AKI

Tiff 2025

Interview with director: Darlene Naponse

Aki is A visual art documentary capturing seasonal changes in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (formerly Whitefish Lake), director Darlene Naponse's Northern Ontario home community. This is a stunning “tour de force” doc about the overwhelming power of Mother Nature. This is even more amazing because this Doc is pretty much wordless and relies on the inspiring score to lift up your attention and your soul. It is also a magical look at the First Nation native Canadians and the beauty of their culture. Watching ‘Aki’ gives you a great sense of Oneness and connection with Nature and the Human race. One day, we will wake up, stand up, unite, and heal the World.

Darlene, the visionary director of ‘Naki’, agreed to talk with us while attending TIFF.

Q: How did this film come together, and what was your inspiration for it?

Darlene: I mainly wanted to talk about the history of my First Nation community. I didn’t want to do it in English, but because I’m not fluent in my community language, I knew I could convey the message through images. It was a real journey of understanding what the intention of the film was, and to be able to talk about and feel that connection with the community and our land.

Q: What type of challenges did you face making this film?

Darlene: Well, the biggest challenge was time. Time to be able to do it. We did get the time to make it. I also made another movie between completing this one. The biggest challenge was about to get out there and doing it. I felt at times the film was telling its own story. The images were driving me in one direction, a direction of its own. And of course, going through 400 hours of footage was quite a challenge. Lots of footage is on a hard drive and not in the cut. But the community can watch it. 

Q: What do you think the messages and themes of this film are? What is it truly about for you?

Darlene: When people watch it, they see different things and messages. Some people think is about connecting to themselves and wanting to go home. For me, it’s the message that we are part of this on Mother Earth and that we awaken to understand what it means and to protect it.

Q: The movie, for me, is talking about the notion of oneness and how we are all connected. Is this a very timely movie, especially when we can see things are falling apart everywhere?

Darlene: Yes, for sure. Even our temperature, climate change, and all of the shootings show that we are falling apart. And also, the changes occurring because of AI. It’s quite frightening. This might be, indeed, the perfect time to release this film. Beyond the beauty of my film, it’s all about what truly happened to my community and its colonization. It’s also all about the land that was taken and destroyed from us.

Q: What does it mean to be at TIFF?

Darlene: It’s a real honor to be able to showcase our film here. Also, it’s amazing to get your film in front of a real audience. There is, right now, an indigenous revolution of filmmakers, and I’m proud to be part of it. There are so many films from here but also from the U.S, Australia, and New Zealand. This is fantastic. I’m so grateful to be at TIFF.