Alumna stop-animated short to premiere at TIFF

Filmmaker Amanda Strong (Bachelor of Illustration ’09) is returning to the Toronto International Film Festival this year to debut her new short Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes).

Biidaaban will premiere as part of TIFF’s Short Cuts Programme event. The stop-animated piece took Strong two years to complete, and is driven by the words of Anishaabe writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. The film features Biidaaban, a young Indigenous gender non-binary person and Sabe, a Sasquatch shape shifter, who set out to harvest sap in urban private neighbourhoods.

Strong’s signature style involves the use of intricate stop-motion animation. She has directed the shorts Alice Eaton (2008), Honey For Sale (2011), Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters (2014), Mia’ (2015), Four Faces of the Moon (2016) and Flood (2017).

Read more about Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) here.