Asia working on location, credit: Jesse Wicklund

In her relatively short time in the film industry, Asia Youngman is making waves for her authentic and captivating storytelling. She is a director and executive producer with past credits as a cinematographer and visual effects artist. However, her work with filmmaking started long before she stepped into any of these roles. After graduating from the University of Victoria with a Degree in Psychology and Sociology, she worked for the BC Provincial Health Services Authority with their Indigenous Health program. She naturally fell into the role of a videographer and editor within the program and was even able to teach film workshops to Indigenous youth.

Later on, while studying 3D animation and visual effects at the Vancouver Film School, she submitted a video art piece to the YVR Art Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship Program. Asia explains her thought process behind the piece: “I thought it would be great for people who were travelling in and out of the airport to see the land through an Indigenous perspective and see portraits of Indigenous youth across the province.”

The resulting film Lelum’, which means home in the Hul’qumi’num language, won Best Documentary Short at the 2017 imagineNATIVE film festival, which is the largest Indigenous film festival in the world. Asia laughs as she tells me she wasn’t even going to attend the awards ceremony as it was her first festival and she had no expectation to come away with a win.

Shooting in Peawanuck, credit: Amanda Klasing

This success pushed her to leave visual effects and pursue filmmaking full time. She now has her own production company, Visceral Village Productions, which was born out of her desire for true sovereignty over her projects:

“I think we should have ownership over our own stories. We have so much talent within the Indigenous film scene so why wouldn’t we want to give opportunities and uplift each other? It felt like a necessity in a way and it probably came out of frustrations as well.”

Asia and I touch on this frustration in our conversation. Women, and especially Indigenous women, are underrepresented in front of and behind the camera of films. She has faced sexism and seen her authority on sets challenged based on age and gender. By creating Visceral Village Productions, she will be able to build inclusive crews and projects that elevate marginalized voices.

Asia and her film equipment ready to follow community members out onto the land for a Caribou hunt

She speaks to some of the goals behind her business and her storytelling: “I want to have a company that can support other underrepresented voices, Indigenous people and women and just kind of make that space for us. I really want to normalize having Indigenous people on screen and behind the camera as well. I’m casting Indigenous people, it’s written and directed by an Indigenous person, and it's produced by a production company that’s Indigenous owned, but it’s not necessarily an Indigenous story. I think we don’t often see the stories of urban Indigenous people so I want to be able to tell more contemporary stories.”

I was lucky enough to talk to Asia recently after she came home to Vancouver from Peawanuck, Ontario. She directed an unreleased Human Rights Watch documentary on the intersection of food security and climate change in the small Northern Ontario town. The 2016 census put the population of Peawanuck at only 195 people. The residents of Peawanuck are members of the Weenusk First Nation.

Asia describes the variety of impacts that the changing climate is having on food access and safety in Peawanuck: “The temperature is changing. It’s changing the migration of the caribou - they’re going to areas that are harder to access so it means more money for people to get fuel to go out that far. They have to spend more nights out on the land which is dangerous. The ice is melting so it’s not as safe to cross and even polar bears are starving so they’re coming closer to communities which is posing an additional threat.”

The people of Peawanuck rely on traditional food practices such as hunting because prices at their only grocery store are out of reach for many. Asia tells me, “It’s crazy to see the selection. A head of lettuce was all brown and shriveled. A flat of water cost $60.”

She also goes on to note the irony of the situation: “Indigenous people in Canada are the lowest contributors to climate change yet they’re the most affected.”

We discuss the power of films to educate audiences on environmental issues and inspire change: “In terms of environmental films, I think it’s so powerful to have a visual image. Getting these videos online to as many people as possible to see it and start to have these conversations is where people will start to change.”

I ask Asia what the future looks like for her career: “There are so many stories I want to tell. I don’t want to zero in on just one thing.” No matter what story Asia is telling, I will be watching and I suggest that you do as well.

To learn more about Asia’s work visit her website and Visceral Village Productions. Follow along with her travels and photography on Instagram. View trailers for her work on Vimeo.

Filmmaking and Food Security: A Conversation with Asia Youngman