River of Silence
(2017, 90 minutes)
Tanis Wolf (Roseanne Supernault) is an Indigenous university student who goes missing on the drive to her grandmother's reserve. Her parents implore a disinterested police force to launch a search. Not content to wait, they join locals who know the terrain in an extensive search and eventually find her car and body by the river. The tragedy send Tanis's supportive family, including her successful mother, gallerist Helen Wolf (Mariel Belanger), and her caring father, artist Nathan Wolf (Stan Isadore) into a spiral of suffering. Written, directed and produced by Cree filmmakers Petie Chalifoux and Micheal Auger, the screenplay is anchored in Chalifoux's direct experience of family grief--her grandmother's disappearance on a remote road near Lesser Slave Lake remains a cold case. With such a tragedy striking a loving, high-functioning family, River of Silence challenges media stereotypes of missing and murdered Indigenous women as being ones who put themselves at risk. And it challenges a media bias that, as Micheal Auger puts it, ... vilifies Indigenous men so they get reduced to virtually nothing.
Director: Micheal Auger
Producers: Micheal Auger, Petie Chalifoux
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River of Silence
(2017, 90 minutes)
Helen Wolf is a professional gallery owner; Nathan Wolf, a productive artist. When their daughter Tanis heads out in broad daylight to drive to her grandma's reserve and never arrives, they launch a search with neighbours on horseback. After finding her drowned body by the riv...