Marie Clements's Reclaim My Skin premieres at VIFF Oct. 10 with Indigenous activist lineup

Métis filmmaker Marie Clements will premiere her sweeping three-part music documentary Reclaim My Skin at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 10, at VIFF Centre. The screening includes a filmmaker Q&A and a lobby exhibit showcasing intricate paper dresses designed for the series by Gitxsan designer Yolonda Skelton.

Reclaim My Skin interweaves music performances from artists including Pura Fé and Laura Grizzlypaws with interviews that explore how Indigenous women and 2-Spirit people lost their power through colonization and how they are reclaiming their voices through activism and the arts. The series is set to debut in 2027 on Knowledge Network.

The documentary draws on voices from across Turtle Island. Subjects include journalist, author, and filmmaker Tanya Talaga; poet, performer, and writer Joy Harjo-Sapulpa; and matrilineal leader and Bear Clan Mother Louise Wakerahkats:te Herne. The series also features one of the final filmed interviews with feminist activist Gloria Steinem.

Episodes touch on the rise of rematriation, the impacts of resource extraction, and the role of the mother. Clements describes the work in her artist's statement: "Reclaim My Skin is a music documentary that pays homage to the cannon of powerhouse Indigenous activists who have been doing the work, fighting for their communities and families, and who have raised their voices on every front line for change."

Clements also has another film in the festival. How We Stand, a feature opening October 3 at the Lindsay Family Stage on Granville Island, follows three sisters through the aftermath of the Native American Relocation Program. The film opens in 1950s Oklahoma with a single mother (played by Cara Jade Myers) and her three young daughters who move to Los Angeles. Traumatic events separate the girls, and the rest of the film traces the women's distinct paths 20 years later. An additional screening is set for October 11.