Elke Porter (Westcoast German Media & Westcoast International Business Club): Hello, Jarrett. How are you today?
Jarrett Martineau (Award-Winning Indigenous media maker, curator, scholar, artist and storyteller): Hi there! I’m doing well, thanks. How about you?
Elke Porter: I’m very good, thank you. Just to let you know, I am recording this interview so I can ensure accuracy in our conversation. Is that okay with you?
Jarrett Martineau: No problem at all. Go ahead.
Elke Porter: Great! So, let’s dive right in. You’re currently involved with the Vancouver International Film Festival, correct?
Jarrett Martineau: Yes, I am. I was invited by Kyle Foster, the executive director, to curate the VIFF Live program this year, and I jumped at the opportunity.
Please get your tickets here: https://viff.org/festival/viff-2024/#get-tickets
Elke Porter: That’s fantastic! Are you based in Vancouver?
Jarrett Martineau: Yes, I am. In addition to my work with VIFF, in my other kind of professional life, I’m the curator in residence at the Chan Center for the Performing Arts at UBC, where I’ve been programming shows as part of our series for the past three years.
Elke Porter: Wow, that’s impressive! I actually attended a couple of events at the Chan Centre recently, the Mandolin concert and the Vespers.
Jarrett Martineau: Oh, that’s great! Although I wasn’t at the Mandolin concert, I’m glad you enjoyed the performances. This is my third year, and we’re currently discussing what the future holds beyond that. I’ve had a wonderful time working with the team there. It’s such a beautiful space to program in, and the music we can bring to that hall truly makes it a spectacular venue. I love being there. It feels like everything is starting to connect, with synergies and relationships developing across the different aspects of my work.
Elke Porter: Definitely! With Westcoast German Media, I focus on anything connected to German culture, including European movies at festivals like VIFF. Could you tell us a bit more about your role in this year’s festival?
Jarrett Martineau: Absolutely. As I mentioned, I’m curating the VIFF Live program. This year, I’ve been working closely with Kyle Foster to bring a diverse range of performances that intersect music, film, and other screen-based media. It’s been an exciting challenge, especially given the tight schedules of the artists.
Elke Porter: It sounds like a fascinating mix. Speaking of your work, I understand you also have a background in music, including a project called RPM?
Jarrett Martineau: Yes, that’s right. I co-founded RPM, an online music platform and record label focused on Indigenous music. While I’m no longer running it, that experience led to my current work hosting “Reclaimed,” an Indigenous music show on CBC Radio. So I’ve been doing that work as well.
Elke Porter: That’s incredible. So, you’ve really bridged the gap between curation, music, and media. Do you also create your own music?
Jarrett Martineau: Yes, I’ve been involved in music for a long time, though recently, I’ve been more focused on curation. However, I’m currently working on an electronic music project called Cameras with a friend. We’re actually heading to Montreal next week to perform at the Mutek Festival, which is really exciting. “MUTEK Montréal Edition 26: 2025, a New Cycle” is an international Festival of digital creativity and electronic music.
Elke Porter: That sounds amazing! It’s always great to see how diverse your interests and work are. How did your involvement with VIFF specifically come about?
Jarrett Martineau: Let’s see well I’ve known Kyle the executive director of the film festival for the last couple of years through our mutual lines of work and everything and we had been looking for an opportunity to do some collaboration between the Chan Center and the film fest and whether the Chan could be an opportunity or could be a space that could provide an opportunity to host less like the traditional film screenings because they’ve got all their venues for their festival for that but for the live performance opportunities so we’ve been like kind of looking for a way to collaborate.
And then this year the VIFF live program is something that has been near and dear to Kyle’s heart for since its inception really and it’s been really his kind of baby that he’s nurtured and last year they worked with a guest curator Norman Armour who sadly has passed away who was one of the founders of the Push Festival and an amazing person he was a really big mentor for me also.
And so Kyle and I had a conversation earlier in the year where he was saying you know we want to keep going with the series we worked with Norman last year was so great and do you have any ideas and would you at all be interested in contributing and so on and I thought yeah what a great time to be able to to step in and to support with contributing
Elke Porter: That must have been a meaningful project, especially given your connection to Norman Armour. Can you tell us more about the shows you’ve curated for VIFF Live?
Jarrett Martineau: Of course. There are four main shows in this year’s series, with a fifth one to be announced soon. The first show features an Inuk artist from Nunavik, Elisapie, who is bringing her multimedia show “Uvattini” to the West Coast for the first time. It’s a beautiful blend of music and storytelling, with a focus on her cultural experiences. She’s a really exciting artist she’s performed at the Chan Center before and had a really great response and so we were like, excuse me excited about the opportunity to bring her back to the West Coast.
Elke Porter: That sounds really powerful. What about the other shows?
Jarrett Martineau: The second show is a collaboration between Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, known for his Oscar-winning film “Drive My Car,” and composer Aiko Ishibashi. Aiko will perform a live score to a reimagined version of Hamaguchi’s latest film, “Evil Does Not Exist.” The third show features American composer William Basinski, who will be performing with analog equipment and magnetic tapes in a piece called “Arcadia Archive.
Elke Porter: And the fourth show?
Jarrett Martineau: The last show is a collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery, featuring the renowned Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. At 91 years old, she’s still creating powerful documentaries, and this event will showcase her latest work, along with a conversation about her incredible career.
Please get your tickets here: https://viff.org/festival/viff-2024/#get-tickets
Elke Porter: Would it be possible to share more information about each show?
Jarrett Martineau: I’ll go through the shows in order. “I’m particularly excited about this new show called Uvattini, which will be held on September 28th at the Chan Centre. It’s a collaboration with Emily Monet, an Indigenous filmmaker and artist from Quebec. Together, they shot unique footage in her home community, which is deeply integrated into the concert. The show is about sharing stories of her cultural experiences, growing up, and it’s infused with music that shaped her childhood. The album and multimedia show are built around popular songs from her youth, like those by Metallica or Cyndi Lauper, which were not originally in Inuktitut.
For this project, she has reinterpreted these songs in her Indigenous language, making the performance a truly unique experience. The show weaves together stories of her childhood and home community with these familiar songs, but presented in a way you’ve never heard before. I’m really excited about this show—it’s going to be something special.”
The next one, on Tuesday, October 1st, is particularly exciting for the VIFF audience, especially those who appreciate film. It’s a collaboration with acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar for Drive My Car a few years ago. His recent film, Evil Does Not Exist, is not a horror movie as the title might suggest, but rather focuses on a local fight to protect the ecological landscape in a small Japanese community.
Aiko Ishibashi, the accomplished musician who soundtracked both Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist, will perform a live score for a reimagined version of the latter film. The performance, called Gift, involves a completely new arrangement of scenes from the film, with Ishibashi providing an original live soundtrack. This is the only chance to experience this unique cinematic event, as it’s not being performed anywhere else.
The following evening, Wednesday, October 2nd, features a multimedia performance by American composer William Basinski at the Rio Theatre. Basinski, known for his work with analog equipment, will present Arcadia Archive, which revisits tape loops he recorded over 40 years ago in a Brooklyn loft called Arcadia. His partner, filmmaker James Elaine, has created new video work to accompany the live performance, creating an immersive experience of ethereal soundscapes and beautiful music.
The final show in the series, on Friday, October 4th, returns to the Chan Centre. This event is a collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery and features the legendary Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, who at 91 years old, is one of Canada’s most prolific documentary filmmakers. She will be performing music from her 1988 album Bush Lady, a haunting and beautiful record that has rarely been performed live. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience her musical work, as she’ll be accompanied by a newly formed ensemble of musicians.
Joining her is Jeremy Dutcher, an Indigenous musician from New Brunswick, known for his work with archival wax cylinder recordings from his community. The evening will highlight an intergenerational conversation between Alanis and Jeremy, connecting their music and art in a profound way. The engagement with archives and past works, brought to life through performance, is a theme that runs throughout the VIFF Live program this year. These shows are truly unique and won’t be touring elsewhere, making them a must-see
Elke Porter: That’s an outstanding lineup! It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of thought into curating these unique performances. Is there anything you’d like to share with our European audience?
Jarrett Martineau: I’d say that the VIFF Live program is a great opportunity to experience a different kind of storytelling that blends various art forms. If you’re in Vancouver or planning to visit, it’s an experience not to be missed.
Elke Porter: Are you going to be connecting with any of the International Sporting Events that are scheduled to happen in Vancouver, like the Invictus Games in 2025 or FIFA Soccer 2026?
Jarrett Martineau: That’s a good question not in a not an approved particularly focused way at this point but it doesn’t preclude that possibility, I guess, for next year. One thing where I might have a bit more of a connection and we’re still working that out is with the Junos because the Junos Juno awards are coming back, not international obviously national but still a big event in the Canadian music industry so that’ll be something that I’m interested to see kind of what the shape of the programming is going to look like here in Vancouver.
Elke Porter: Did the pandemic sort of make it really hard for the Chan Center to you keep going?
Jarrett Martineau: Absolutely, the pandemic made it incredibly difficult for the Chan Centre, as well as many other organizations. The arts sector, in particular, has faced one of its most challenging periods in 2024. While we initially dealt with the intense media shutdown when the COVID pandemic first hit, we’re now dealing with the long-term impacts of that time. Many organizations are struggling financially, especially as government support and grants have diminished. The arts sector is really feeling the strain.
At the Chan Centre, we’ve been fortunate to have a dedicated and loyal audience, and many people are now starting to return. There was a time when we had to deal with audience capacity restrictions and concerns about safety, with people understandably hesitant to be in a room with a thousand others. But that seems to be changing now.
Elke Porter: Thank you so much for your time, Jarrett. It was a pleasure speaking with you, and I’m sure our readers will be excited to learn more about the VIFF Live program.
Jarrett Martineau: Thank you! It was great chatting with you as well. I hope to see some of your readers at the festival!
As it wasn’t announced officially, I found out after my interview that the Special Event is: For one night only on October 5, two-time Oscar-winning composer and songwriter A.R. Rahman will join the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver International Film Festival for An Evening with A.R. Rahman: Stories and Music from His Career. The international superstar will provide a keynote and performance with the VSO at the Orpheum, with music spanning his legendary career composing for some of Hollywood and Bollywood’s biggest hits. This special concert presented by the VSO and VIFF is part of an exciting new collaboration between the two organizations that celebrates the connection between music and film.
Please get your tickets here: https://viff.org/festival/viff-2024/#get-tickets
Jarrett Martineau Bio
Jarrett Martineau is a nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Dene Sųłiné curator, producer, artist, scholar and storyteller and a leading voice in Indigenous media and cultural production. He has worked extensively at the intersections of music, arts, media, technology, and social movements in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, and New York, and he holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria. He is the host, creator and producer of Reclaimed, CBC’s first-ever Indigenous music series, and he has worked across the arts and cultural sector and curated with a wide range of global partners including SXSW, Luminato, PuSh Festival, Darwin Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Manifesto Festival, the AGO, Harbourfront Centre, POP Montreal, imagineNATIVE, and Indian Summer Festival. Jarrett recently served as the City of Vancouver’s inaugural Music Officer; he created and produced the award-winning Indigenous documentary series RISE for VICELAND; and he co-founded the global Indigenous music platform, Revolutions Per Minute, and the New Forms Festival in Vancouver. Jarrett’s scholarly research and writing examine decolonial practices that pursue new pathways in Indigenous resurgence through the creative arts. Jarrett is a member of Frog Lake First Nation and he currently resides in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səlilwətaɬ.
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