Rhymes for Young Ghouls | |
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Theatrical poster
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Directed by | Jeff Barnaby |
Produced by | Aisling Chin-yee John Christou |
Written by | Jeff Barnaby |
Starring |
Kawennahere Devery Jacobs Glen Gould Brandon Oakes |
Music by |
Jeff Barnaby Joe Barrucco |
Cinematography | Michel St Martin |
Edited by | Jeff Barnaby Mathieu Belanger |
Distributed by | Les Films Séville monterey media inc. (usa) |
Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English Mi'kmaq |
Budget | $1,500,000 |
Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a 2013 Canadian drama film and the feature film debut of writer-director Jeff Barnaby. It is set in 1976 on an Indian reserve in the context of the residential school system. Although it tells the fictional story of a teenager named Aila and her plot for revenge, it is based on the history of abuse of the First Nations people by government agents, including a large number of reported cases of the mental and physical abuse of residential school children. It is presented from the perspective of a teenage girl.
The film is set in 1976 at the fictional Red Crow Reserve, a Mi'kmaq Indian reserve. Aila (Kawennahere Devery Jacobs), a Mi'kmaq youth, loses her mother to suicide and her father Joseph (Glen Gould) to a prison term.
She assumes her father's drug dealing business while in the care of her uncle Burner (Brandon Oakes) who himself consumes and sells drugs. Joseph's release from prison interrupts Aila and Burner's drug business, while they all face the schemes of the abusive Indian agent Popper (Mark Antony Krupa).
Aila plots revenge against Popper after she is thrown into the reserve's residential school.
Prospector Films of Montreal produced the film, which was shot from 21 October to 22 November 2012.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2013. It was awarded Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival. As of 26 September 2013, IMDb reported a user rating of 8.1/10, coupled with 10 highly favourable critical reviews. Its first theatrical release was in Toronto, Ontario on 31 January 2014.
Kawennahere Devery Jacobs was nominated for a Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the Canadian Screen Awards.