Friday’s Featured Film will be Maina, an award-winning feature-length film that tells the story of the first encounters between First Nations and Inuits, 600 years ago. On Saturday morning, Michel Poulette, the director, will host an intimate workshop and conversation about the making of his unusual film. Michel, who is not First Nations, decided to produce Maina to more fully explore the long but not widely known history of pre-contact North America. He approached Canadian Innus and Inuits with a unique proposal: they would become his cultural consultant and they will work in collaboration on the film. In accordance, Michel decided that every Innu and Inuit character would be played by a First Nation actor. The movie opened in competition at the Shanghai Film Festival and received 12 awards around the world. Michel will discuss the making on Maina but will also touch on a wider scope: the making of a feature-length film. He will discuss writing (how to structure an idea into a script) directing actors, promotion and more—if you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to sit in the director’s chair for a major movie, here’s your chance to find out!