Gwaai Edenshaw
Born1977 (age 45–46)[1]
Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia
Pen nameHluugitgaa (Haida)
OccupationArtist, filmmaker, writer
NationalityCanadian
Notable worksEdge of the Knife (SG̲aawaay Ḵʹuuna)
RelativesGuujaaw (father)
Website
gwaai.com
Two Brothers, a totem pole carved by Jaalen and Gwaai Edenshaw, Jasper, Alberta (2011).

Gwaai Edenshaw is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada.[2] Along with Helen Haig-Brown, he co-directed Edge of the Knife (SG̲aawaay Ḵʹuuna), the first Haida language feature film.[3]

Background

The son of noted Haida artist Guujaaw (Gary Edenshaw), he was raised on Haida Gwaii.[4] At age 16, he went to Vancouver to apprentice as an artist with Bill Reid.[5] He received a diploma in jewellery design from Vancouver Community College.[2] As of 2018, he lived in Sechelt, BC with his partner, musician Kinnie Starr.[6]

Career

As an artist, Edenshaw has worked primarily in woodcarving and jewellery, as well as some work in sketch and painting.[4] His work has been exhibited in a number of galleries in both Canada and the United States,[2] and he curated a show on indigenous erotica in 2013.[7]

He created Haidawood, an animated web series which premiered in 2007, and cowrote the theatrical play Sounding Gambling Sticks with his brother Jaalen Edenshaw in 2008.[2] He wrote some Haida-inspired music for Bruce Ruddell's 2010 rock opera Beyond Eden.[8] He is a founding member of Q’altsi’da Kaa, a group which promotes traditional Haida storytelling.[2]

In 2017 Edenshaw and Haig-Brown began production on Edge of the Knife.[9] Based on the traditional Haida story of Gaagiixid the "wild man", who loses his grip on reality in the forest before being returned to his community in a healing ceremony,[3] the film had its theatrical premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.[10]

The film won the awards for Best Canadian Film and Best British Columbia Film at the 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival,[11] and the Sun Jury Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.[12] It won several year-end awards from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, for Best Canadian Film and Best British Columbia Film, Best Director and Best Actor (Tyler York).[13] It was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2018.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Gwaai Edenshaw – Lattimer Gallery". Archived from the original on 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ryan McKenzie and Kevin Hinton (May 28, 2018). "Lunch with Edge of the Knife co-director Gwaai Edenshaw". BC Business. Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Porter, Catherine (June 11, 2017). "Reviving a Lost Language of Canada Through Film". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-11-13. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  4. 1 2 Sandals, Leah (September 13, 2018). "The Haida Language on Film, in Depth and at Last". Canadian Art. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ Meredith, America (Fall 2018). "Gwaai Edenshaw: Haida Carver And Interdisciplinary Artist". First American Art Magazine.
  6. ↑ "Music Vancouver's Kinnie Starr drops the Doug Romanow-produced "Big World"". HipHopCanada. April 29, 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2020. [Starr] now calls Sechelt, BC home; and shares her life with partner, Gwaai Edenshaw, a renowned carver and the son of Guujaaw.
  7. ↑ Griffin, Kevin (November 18, 2013). "RezErected: Saying the 'p' word at the Bill Reid Gallery". Vancouver Sun.
  8. ↑ "Beyond Eden builds a beautiful bridge". Vancouver Sun, January 23, 2010.
  9. ↑ Marsha Lederman, "Making history on Haida Gwaii" Archived 2017-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. The Globe and Mail, June 22, 2017.
  10. ↑ "First feature film shot in Haida premieres at TIFF" Archived 2019-01-02 at the Wayback Machine. Unreserved, September 14, 2018.
  11. ↑ "In Brief: VIFF names BC Spotlight winners". Playback, October 11, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Amanda Strong, Lisa Jackson win prizes as ImagineNative fest wraps" Archived 2018-12-27 at the Wayback Machine. Playback, October 22, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards Haida-language 'Edge of the Knife'". CityNews, January 8, 2019.
  14. ↑ "TIFF's Canada's Top Ten list skews a lot younger this year" Archived 2018-12-06 at the Wayback Machine. Now, December 5, 2018.
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