Response: Remembering Our Futures is the culmination of the Response Program, an annual filmmaking initiative that inspires artistic responses to historical and contemporary Indigenous ways of being. Participants engaged in a series of workshops led by Indigenous artists and Knowledge Holders during the summer of 2024 to produce an original video work on view in The Polygon Gallery’s Seaspan Pavilion from March 5 to April 4, 2025.

Past generations, stories, and histories influence the way we look toward our futures, inciting care and intention as we imagine beyond current realities. By breaking down the dichotomy of past and present, we invite an all-encompassing understanding of the relationships that we hold. This year, participants were encouraged to consider experiences and connections that transcend time, and the ways in which formative influences remain vital and present throughout one’s life. Through techniques ranging from performance to animation, the artists’ films in Response: Remembering Our Futures embrace themes of healing, intimacy, belonging, and resistance.

Looking forward can feel uneasy during a time where so much seems uncertain, but Remembering Our Futures reminds us that our relationships exist in all directions, and tending to them allows us to see further than ourselves.

Feature image:
Melanie Evelyn, Seafoam Dream, 2024