An Indigenous storyteller’s short film on the intergenerational powers of healing is premiering in Vernon.
Coming Home For the Children is a film that focuses on the reclaiming of the meaning of home for Charlene SanJenko and former Splatsin Chief Wayne Christian.
Coming Home For the Children - 2023 trailer from reGEN media on Vimeo.
SanJenko is also the director of the film, as she is the founder and media visionary of PowHERhouse and reGEN media.
Filmed in the scenic valley of the Splatsin Nation, the southernmost tribe of the Secwepemc Nation in the interior of B.C., Coming Home For the Children is a short documentary profiling SanJenko as an adult-adoptee and foster care survivor. Seven-term former First Nations Chief Christian - whose Indian name, Wenecwtsin, means Big Voice That Speaks the Truth, is also featured.
The film first screened on Friday, Oct. 13 at the Sechelt Arts Festival and will be at the Vernon Towne Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
“We applaud Charlene and the teams at PowHERhouse and reGEN media for bringing this important story to life,” said Enderby and District branch manager, Andrew Van Dokkumburg. “We all have a role to play in helping to heal and better understand our Indigenous communities and through this partnership, we can ensure that the film is accessible to all with the hope that those who see it will be inspired to create even greater impact.”
The film travels back and forth between the reclaiming of the meaning of home for both SanJenko and Christian as they meet for the first time in the Splatsin Nation.
“As an Indigenous woman raised in a non-Indigenous environment, I walk in two worlds,” said SanJenko. “I crave to experience each day in an expanded state of my existence, fully awake to my whole life as a spiritual being in a physical body and connecting at a deeper level with my own pain as well as the pain of my ancestors and the healing possible through all my relations.”
For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit thetowne.ca. SanJenko and Christian will stay after the film for up to 30 minutes for a Q and A session should people have questions and want to hear more about their experience.
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