Synopsis
The town square is flooded. The city’s infrastructure has merged with local flora. In this radically different future, people have found a connection to the past. Biidaaban: First Light illuminates how the original languages of this land can provide a framework for understanding our place in a reconciled version of Canada’s largest urban environment.
Rooted in the realm of Indigenous futurism, Biidaaban: First Light is an interactive VR time-jump into a highly realistic Toronto of tomorrow. As users explore this altered city now reclaimed by nature, they must think about their place in history and ultimately their role in the future.
Language carries the knowledge of its speakers. Indigenous North American languages are radically different from European languages and embody sets of relationships to the land, to each other, and to time itself. But as Indigenous languages face the risk of disappearing, we risk losing what they have to teach us.
Credits
Director Lisa Jackson
Producers Rob McLaughlin, Dana Dansereau, NFB Digital Studio (English)
3D Artist / Environment Designer Mathew Borrett
Designer / Developer Jam 3
Awards & Nominations
 | Best Immersive Experience Fiction Canadian Screen Awards 2019 |
| Best Interactive Work imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival 2018 |
| Official Nominee Webby Awards 2019 |
| Official Nominee Banff World Media Festival Rockie Awards 2019 |
| Best Virtual Reality Film Tacoma Film Festival 2018 |
Selected Festivals & Presentations
Tribeca Storyscapes
LA Film Festival
Melbourne Film Festival & Melbourne Museum
American Anthropological Association
Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis
Vancouver International Film Festival
RIDM Film Festival
Melbourne Museum
Nuit Blanche Montréal
Doors Open Toronto
New Media Gallery, New Westminster
Brisbane Power House
Margaret Mead (NY)
New Orleans Film Festival
Digital Jove, Spain
Camden Film Festival
Press
The Globe and Mail, “Is Virtual Reality About to Break Through as an Artist’s Medium?”
Filmmaker Magazine, “Our Culture is our Language”
CBC.ca, “Anishinaabe Artist’s New VR Experience…”
Toronto Star, “The Subway Tracks are Flooded…”
NOW Magazine, “Virtual Reality Film Imagines an Indigenous Future…”
The Globe and Mail, “A Virtual Reality Film that Imagines Toronto’s Wild Future”
National Post, “How Biidaaban Imagines a Future…”
CBC Indigenous, “Anishinaabe Artist’s New VR Experience…”
Engadget, “The Surprising Beauty of Nature Taking Over Toronto in VR”
WBEZ, “‘Indigenous Futurism’ Creatively Answers North America’s Colonial Past”