After traveling up the Camopi River and through a vast flooded mangrove, the roaring waterfall appears in the middle of the forest. We set up a small barbecue on flat stones, laying large pieces of chicken over the embers. Haitian kompa music blares from an old portable speaker : the party begins.

Diamond Creek explores the relationship to image and tradition among Indigenous youth, as well as the dynamics of power and post-colonial imprint in our interactions with filmed subjects. My artist’s film seeks to portray the youth of this overseas territory in a way that is sensitive and non-stereotypical. The question of the archive is central to this work : taking the original hard drives and copying the rushes onto a new blank medium is, in a way, to retrace the journey back to Camopi.

Thus, I zoom into my raw footage, fragment the bodies, and slow the frame rate in order to get closer to intimacy, to memory. In essence, this is a kind of family or holiday film.