Indigital Films

Happy birthday to my brother ish Brent Sands, what more can I ask for in a kid brother, love that guy so much!!

New Film with filmmaker Luísa Cruz set premiere in Halifax NS and Brantford ON next weekend.

Bkej (2024) is an exploration of plants as translators and mediators of our senses of belonging to the lands we call home. Shot at Bkejwanong (Walpole Island First Nation), filmmakers Derek Sands and Luísa Cruz worked with phytograms, an analogue filmmaking technique that makes use of plant matter to develop the film; in the process, the plants imprint themselves in the film strip, yielding abstract and whimsical effects. Working with plants not only invites us to learn about their ways of being but also about each other, allowing us to have a more intimate connection with the lands we share.

One Land, Two Hearts: Celebrating the world premieres of WhereWeStand Come participate, experience and celebrate the world premieres of a novel multimedia storytelling project of identity and belonging produced by a cohort of Indigenous peoples and newcomers to Canada. Their collaborative project WhereWeStand (WWS) presents a range of creative multimedia works, from f...

Sundance Film Festival 2024
The past week I left Toronto for Park City Utah and was invited by my cousin Father Henry Sands and cousin Taye Alvis to attend Windrider Summit and Sundance Film Festival 2024. We were able to meet and learn from several Academy Award winning filmmakers and get such positive and inspiring insight into our own work as storytellers. The greatest thing about this experience was getting to spend time with my family, Henry and Taye, the family that hosted us and my SLC family whom I got to visit, and other emerging filmmakers from the Windrider Institute. Truly blessed.

Video Essay about the land, Bkejwanong. Experimenting with narration and recorded natural embience of the land, water and fire.

Reconnecting to the Land (2022): A Video Essay This is "Reconnecting to the Land (2022): A Video Essay" by Derek Sands on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

My journey is our journey. I have been working on my Masters Research Project over a year now and after one more shoot, which hopefully is the accumulation of everything we have done so far in terms of storytelling….I get to edit and piece this film together. I haven’t been as frequent as I thought I would be with my posts, mostly just fun things in between long days of work and travel, so these photos are some insights of the progress. My original intent was to become a more valuable storyteller/filmmaker and to gain experience living in a huge urban area, it’s been that but with many struggles, some gruelling and some changes in directions. There’s been a lot of victories too, so much experience gained, and understandings towards aspects of who I am, which are a result of this entire process. During this stretch, I’ve been gaining a strong voice, gaining a new attitude for justice, and so much appreciation with what this opportunity brings. I listen to the people, that’s the golden key. I connect this way and it shows me the way. If I’m asked to do something, even if I’m not sure, I do it because one thing leads to the next and I don’t have control of any of it. I only know I will be amazed. Chi-Miigwech.

Making films and watching films!