‘Poos’ had its international debut Monday at the Calgary International Film Festival.
Celestine Twigg’s life-long dream to share the Blackfoot language with the world through cartoons is hitting the big time.
Twigg’s recently released cartoon Poos, which means cat in Blackfoot, will screen this fall in Calgary, Los Angeles and New Westminister.
Poos builds on the success of the Blackfoot language animation project produced by Xstine Cook and Calgary Animated Objects Society in 2020-’23 with Twigg’s guidance.
That project resulted in over 100 short cartoons that illustrate different nouns and concepts with Blackfoot language narration, and were created by students in Fort Macleod and animators all over the world.
Twigg was eager to try her hand at directing a longer cartoon, and worked with Cook, an award-winning filmmaker and artistic director of the Calgary Animated Objects Society to source funding and assemble a dream team.
Poos highlights the daily activities of Twigg’s cat Thumper.
“I thought animation would make it easier and more fun to learn our language so more people will be able to learn and revive it.” Twigg said.
Twigg, a Blackfoot language teacher at Piikani Nation Secondary School who lives in Fort Macleod, is thrilled Poos is fulfilling her lifelong dream of creating cartoons to share the Blackfoot language.
Poos is a personal story, drawing viewers into the daily life of Twigg’s cat Thumper, narrated in Blackfoot by her late son Troy Emery Twigg.
After a busy morning, Thumper falls asleep and dreams about Blackfoot culture, stories and philosophy narrated by language keeper Harrison Red Crow.
With the support of Calgary Arts Development and the Canada Council for the Arts, a team was formed consisting of Twigg, Cook, world-renowned artist Adrian Stimson, Red Crow, musician Lance Tailfeathers, animator Tank Standing Buffalo, editor Neil Evenson, illustrator Tonka Prittikowski and dancer and voice actor Troy Emery Twigg.
They worked together to develop the storyline, artwork, storyboards, script in English and Blackfoot, animation, soundtrack and voice recordings.
“Poos is a beautiful example of Blackfoot story telling through animation, the transference and preservation of the language is so important for the survival of the Blackfoot way of being,” Stimson said.
Poos had its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival on Monday and screens at the New West Film Fest in New Westminster, B.C .in October and at Red Nation International Film Festival in Los Angeles in November. Celestine Twigg plans to attend.
Troy Emery Twigg co-wrote Poos with Celestine Twigg and Cook when the pandemic halted his dance practice, which took him all across Canada.
Troy Emery Twigg found himself living in Fort Macleod with his mom, contributing to the writing and development of Poos, and learned the Blackfoot vocabulary and pronunciation under the tutelage of Celestine and Harrison Red Crow.
Troy Emery Twigg was a founding member of Calgary’s Making Treaty 7 theatre company, and an originator of Iniskim: Return of the Buffalo, a mask and puppet project featured in a documentary of the same name that also screened at the Calgary International Film Festival.
Troy Emery Twigg died Aug. 30, 2023, and Poos is dedicated to his memory.
