Lorna Brown is a Wet'suwet'en filmmaker whose first film Adaawk will premier at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival on Oct. 18.

The film came to be made because Brown's niece Tamara went missing in 2005. Since that time, Brown and her family, which includes Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) awareness advocate Gladys Radek, became very involved in the MMIWG Awareness Walks along Highway 16 and totem pole raising in Kitsumkalen.

Brown listened to many families stories of loss, heartbreak and confusion and she began to make short videos to play on the CFNR (Canada's First Nation Radio) website where she works in sales and marketing.

As a first time filmmaker, and the first Indigenous woman to lead the making of a film about the MMIWG epidemic in BC, she understood the weight of this film's release.

In July, once her final cut of the film was completed, she held a private screening for the families involved in the interviews of the film, to share with them what she and her team had created.

Adaawk means "oral history," and it's the title of this film.

Adaawk will have it's official release on Oct. 18 at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival, which is considered Canada’s premier Indigenous media arts event and are the largest festival of its kind in the world.

Listen to the full interview about the making of this film with Director Lorna Brown below: