In memoriam: Cin | Comm graduate and Mi鈥檊maq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby
Acclaimed Mi鈥檊maq filmmaker and Dawson Cinema| Communications alumni, Jeff Barnaby died on October 13, 2022 at the age of 46, after a year-long battle with cancer.
Jeff was an immensely gifted and highly original filmmaker whose exceptional talents were clear from the start. Fresh out of film school, his early, surrealistic shorts From Cherry English (2004) and The Colony (2007), and later File Under Miscellaneous聽(2010) took home top awards at prestigious festivals across the US and Canada: Sundance, TIFF, VIFF. Yorkton, and the ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.
Committed to telling Indigenous stories in new and challenging ways, Jeff drew on his native Mi鈥檊maq language and world views, and sampled the genre conventions of science-fiction and horror films, film noir, anime and Shakespearian tragedy, to dramatize the complex emotional after effects of colonial history on Indigenous communities. Jeff鈥檚 first feature, Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) engaged 鈥渁 teen-age Aboriginal, revenge-seeking drug-dealer鈥� to deliver a searing indictment of Canada鈥檚 Residential School system years before the mass graves of Indigenous children came to light. 聽Blood Quantum聽(2019) followed up with an equally blistering critique of colonialism in the guise of a 鈥榸ombie鈥� apocalypse film, completed just as the COVID pandemic began.
As a student in CEGEP, Jeff鈥檚 gifts were already apparent. Although he liked to give credit to Dawson for refining his cinematic vision, in truth it was already well formed when he arrived. At Dawson he merely acquired the tools to express it. Former Cin|Com Chair Simon Davies, remembers Jeff as 鈥渋ncredibly focused, mindful and competent and a very nice human – the most creative production student鈥� that he had ever 鈥渉ad the pleasure to share time with.鈥� He also recalls that the first short the budding filmmaker made in class 鈥渨as so innovative, confrontational and explorative the class was numb after watching it.鈥�
IMA鈥檚 John Connolly shared a similar story about the reaction of students to watching one of the films Jeff made after leaving Dawson: 鈥淛eff was always聽generous with his time when it聽came to Dawson. I remember one visit where he walked in, said hello to the class, and cold-screened Red Right Hand, a short film he had just made at Concordia, very dark and very Jeff. Anyway, the film finishes, I turn on the lights, and the class is not just silent, but frozen. I remember聽thinking 鈥榦h oh, maybe I should have asked him what聽he was going to show鈥�.聽 After shock came the anger. Students were聽asking him 鈥榟ow could you …鈥� and 鈥榳hy would you …鈥櫬� and Jeff starts to give聽background, context, what the story was really about, etc. He talks for about聽15 minutes. The class comes to an end, he gets up to leave, and gets a spontaneous standing聽ovation from a room聽full of 18-year-olds.聽 It was like a magic trick.聽 That was Jeff. So much聽depth, and humour, and anger and grace.”
Michelle Smith, Cin|Com teacher and director of the First Peoples鈥� Post-Secondary Storytelling Exchange project echoes John鈥檚 appreciation of the pedagogical value of Jeff鈥檚 films: 鈥渟o much of the discourse around Indigenous experience is about lack, and problems; it鈥檚 deficit-based.聽Jeff鈥檚 films featured complicated, larger than life characters with shitloads of agency, like Devery Jacobs鈥� Aila who takes serious revenge on the Indian agent in Rhymes for Young Ghouls. What a gift for a film teacher, to share Jeff’s dark and beautiful worlds and uniquely original stories with students who are just starting to get their heads around colonization and its ongoing impacts. Miigwech Jeff for fighting to make your movies. You will forever help us see.鈥�
Jeff鈥檚 films are not easy to watch. Their subjects disturb, and the filmmaker鈥檚 methods unsettle. Moving from comedy to tragedy to horror and back again, the films shift genre gears rapidly and repeatedly, sometimes in the course of a single scene. The tone changes that result are startling. CBC journalist George Stroumboulopoulos aptly dubbed Jeff鈥檚 film style 鈥淏are Knuckle Cinema,鈥� and Chelsea Vowel, a M茅tis writer and educator, described Jeff鈥檚 film work in similar terms: as 鈥渁bsolutely unrelenting in its brutality.鈥� Even so, she still insisted that 鈥渆very adult living in Canada should watch it.鈥�
As direct and unflinching as Jeff鈥檚 films are in their depiction of the colonial violence wrecked on Canada鈥檚 Indigenous peoples, and crucial for their storytelling because of it, they are also, often surprisingly beautiful. Jeff鈥檚 mise-en-sc猫ne is lush, his artwork stunning, his sound design refined, his dialogue witty, his plots smart, his stories righteous, and his protagonists always, always brave, and with the courage to question themselves. There was, instead of pretence, a directness to the man and his work, yet as challenging as Jeff鈥檚 films and Jeff himself at times could be, there was a gentleness to be found beneath the surface.
Jeff never really left Dawson. He graduated and went on to earn his BFA at Concordia. He made several shorts and two feature films and traveled with them to festivals. He received awards and funding. He got married, had a child, wrote new screenplays, revised and rewrote them, gave talks and interviews, and pitches for new projects; but he always made a point of keeping in touch, stopping by to talk to students about the trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows of independent filmmaking. Last March, as a guest of the Decolonization and Indigenous Studies Certificate and The Dawson Horror Collective, he told students that they would walk away from Dawson better artists and better people. He felt he had. He should have told them that they could change Dawson and leave it a better place too. Jeff did. As he championed Dawson, we celebrated him. He was a remarkable filmmaker, a very good human and a loyal friend. He will be deeply mourned and sorely missed.
Jeff is survived by his wife, Sarah Del Seronde, a teacher in Cinema | Communications and his son Miles.
The Cinema|Communications Department will host a program of Jeff Barnaby鈥檚 films over the Winter semester and intends to create an award for Indigenous Students working in film in his honour.
