Amanda Strong (NSI IndigiDocs) recently spoke to CBC about the making of her acclaimed stop-motion short Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) as the film has its CBC Gem streaming premiere.

Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) follows an Indigenous youth named Biidaaban who sets out to harvest sap from sugar maples in an urban Ontario neighbourhood, a practice that goes back to time immemorial for the Anishinaabe.

Helped by their friend, a 10,000-year-old shapeshifter named Sabe, and a ghost caribou and wolf — reminders of the history of the land — Biidaabaan can see the traces of the people, creatures, land and time as they work to continue in their ancestors’ movements.

Watch the film.