Rhymes for Young Ghouls
Director: Jeff Barnaby Run Time: 88 min. Format: DCP Rating: R Release Year: 2013
Starring: Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes
The Future of Film is Female presents a special presentation of Rhymes for Young Ghouls as both a ten year anniversary screening of its premiere and a celebration in honor of the late Jeff Baraby who sadly passed away last year. This screening will include recorded introductions by casting director Rene Hayes (Killers of the Flower Moon) and K. Devery Jacobs (Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Reservation Dogs). To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
One of the most important new voices to take up horror, Mi’kmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby was vocally committed to Indigenous, factually grounded storytelling. Over a mere two features and a handful of shorts, he proved his mastery of the genre film as a tool for highlighting the grievances and grief of his people. Starting from the real-life horror of Canada’s residential school system, Barnaby mixes elements of the supernatural with tragic family melodrama and an insider’s view of a blighted community. On a fictional Red Crow reservation, where Canadian First Nations people suffer under racist governmental control, a teenage girl organizes a posse of disillusioned friends to avenge their mistreatment by a sadistic white agent. Sadly, these wounds remain open: fresh revelations about the history of abuse that inspired the film were still breaking news in 2021. – Ron Magliozzi, Horror: Messaging the Monstrous (MoMA, 2022)