This Is Not a Ceremony is a 21-minute-long VR experience from Niitsitapi writer and director Ahnahktsipiitaa (Colin Van Loon). The cinematic VR Experience first made its world premiere at Sundance 2022 and is now available on Meta Quest TV.
If you have a Meta Quest TV-compatible device, you can view the experience anywhere in the world free of cost. The experience is available to view in English, French and Blackfoot.
⏸️ #NFB Pause ⏸️
Through the power of #VR, Ahnahktsipiitaa (Colin Van Loon) transcends the lenses of traditional media to take us to a place where colonial rules and assumptions are forgotten.
🦬 Experience THIS IS NOT A CEREMONY on Meta Quest TV → https://t.co/rdTlDuN0yh pic.twitter.com/VGyFLayXrp— National Film Board of Canada (@thenfb) March 21, 2023
“In many Indigenous nations including the Blackfoot Confederacy and Piikani Nation, we have a tradition of witnessing where the witness becomes responsible to the community,” said Ahnahktsipiitaa in a statement given to Global News last year. “I really wanted to take that idea and infuse it into this piece.”
The experience recounts two stories about Indigenous men. One concerns Adam North Peigan, who is both the president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta and a former foster child who experienced displacement during the Sixties Scoop. The other is about Brian Sinclair, who passed away on September 21, 2008, at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre.
This Is Not a Ceremony offers viewers the opportunity to face some of the more challenging aspects of Indigenous life in Canada. Check it out here.
Image credit: MediaSpace
