Social Justice, Podcast, Arts & Culture
Episode 118: Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
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Blackfoot and S谩mi writer, actor, producer and director, Elle鈥揗谩ij谩 Tailfeathers joins host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar to talk about her latest film K铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. Together they discussed how Tailfeathers created the feature documentary film, which takes place in her community of Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, and look at the impacts of the drug-poisoning epidemic over a period of four years in that community.
Elle鈥揗谩ij谩 shares her own process of narrative sovereignty as an Indigenous filmmaker, a process rooted in conversation, deep listening, accountability and that is also respectful of community protocols. She also talks about how she implemented the Blackfoot concept of K铆mmapiiyipitssini, working from a place of empathy, love and understanding, to her practice and how her previous works influenced this film.
K铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
Elle鈥揗谩ij谩 Tailfeathers鈥� film witnesses radical and profound change in her community. K铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is an intimate portrait of survival, love and the collective work of healing in the Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, a Blackfoot community facing the impacts of substance use and a drug-poisoning epidemic.
Community members active in addiction and recovery, first responders and medical professionals implement harm reduction to save lives. This work is contextualized within the historical and contemporary impacts of settler colonialism; K铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy draws a connecting line between the effects of colonial violence on Blackfoot land and people and the ongoing substance-use crisis.
Held in love and hope for the future, K铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy asks the audience to be a part of this remarkable change with the community.
Resources
About Our Guest
Elle-M谩ij谩 Tailfeathers
Elle-M谩ij谩 Tailfeathers is a writer, director, producer and actor. She is a member of the Kainai First Nation (Blood Tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy) as well as S谩mi from Norway.
She was named the 2018 Sundance Film Institute鈥檚 Merata Mita Film Fellow and is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Lab and the Hot Docs Accelerator Lab. Her short documentary Bihtto拧 was selected as one of TIFF鈥檚 Top Ten Canadian shorts and also won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at the Seattle International Film Festival. She acted in and co-wrote and co-directed (with Kathleen Hepburn) the narrative feature The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2019 and received the Toronto Film Critics Association and Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards for best Canadian film. It was also nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, and Tailfeathers and Hepburn won the CSAs for best direction and best original screenplay. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open was picked up for distribution by Ava DuVernay鈥檚 company, ARRAY, and is available to stream on Netflix in the United States.
Cite This Episode
Chicago Style
Johal, Am. 鈥淜铆mmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy.鈥� Below the Radar, 丁香园AV鈥檚 Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 27, 2021. /vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/118-elle-maija-tailfeathers.html.
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