Five-day films a journey for local Indigenous

By Lethbridge Herald on June 24, 2025.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In only five days, a group of Indigenous filmmakers not only learned how to make documentary style film, but also put together their own short films.

Empowered Filmmaker was founded by Farhan Umedaly in 2017 as a way to help amplify Indigenous voices, especially in their own stories and if funded by Telus StoryHive.

Umedaly says he has seen how the power of filmmaking has to help the participants heal.

“People are telling their story, but they’re also putting behind a difficult past sometimes and moving forward to lift others up and there’s a lot of positivity in that.”

In 2017, Empowered Filmmaker hosted 25 participants free of charge and has since grown to more than 100 participants each of the last two years. This year they visited four cities across B.C and Alberta and this was their third time visiting Lethbridge.

Hosted by the Sik-Ooh-Kotoki Friendship Society, a total of 10 films were created by more than 20 participants, featuring topics ranging from the Blind Ambition Dragon Boat team to addiction within Lethbridge and even a film about the Sik-Ooh-Kotoki Friendship Society itself.

Tyler McKinney, who helped teach the program, says the participants were eager to get right to work on the second day, which is usually a full teaching day. He said he was astounded by the tenacity they showed.

“The fact that people were all ready to go and had their plans and were ready to execute it was amazing.”

Some participants, like Billi-J Heavy Shields, came in with an idea of what their film was going to be, but ended up with something completely different.

“I was coming into this thinking I was going to share a story of my brother,” said Heavy Shield. “But it turned into a whole different experience.

While she did have some experience creating TikTok videos, Heavy Shields said it was a whole different ball game creating a documentary.

“It was intense…I have a new-found respect for filmmakers.”

At the end of the week they held a premiere for the films created, giving out awards to those who stood out.

Elaine Creighton-Fox, executive director of the Friendship Centre, said she hopes to continue to support Empowered Filmmaker through the years to help more Indigenous filmmakers make a mark in the industry.

The films that were created, and more information on Empowered Filmmaker, can be found at www.empoweredfilmmaker.com