M’CHIGEENG—This year’s spring convocation at Weengushk Film Institute (WFI) provided a bittersweet ride on an emotional rollercoaster that took participants down into the deep sadness of losing a close friend and colleague, fellow WFI student Joshua Yesno who succumbed to a congenital heart condition earlier this year, to the wild exuberance of learning that—for the first time in WFI’s history—one of the student pitches for a television series was picked up for development by a production company. The students themselves learning of the news along with their family and friends as it was announced at the graduation ceremonies.
This year’s graduates of the Brock University accredited Lab 2 program included Brian Fowler, Isaac Kakegamic, Aaron Manitowabi and Hunter Smith. This would have been Joshua Yesno’s graduation ceremony as well, but the four students will go on to take part in Brock’s convocation in June carrying his memory and spirit with them.
Preceding the ceremony, a sombre and touching memorial was held for Mr. Yesno in which his mother, older sister, instructors, mentors and friends remembered the gentle giant whose life was quite literally transformed by his time at WFI.
Rose Yesno, Joshua’s mother, spoke of Joshua’s early years and the challenges he faced growing up in a number of First Nations as his police officer father served different communities over his career. Among the challenges Joshua faced in his life was deafness and a diagnosis of diabetes and the loss of his father at an early age. An operation brought him the gift of hearing, but prior to that his family had to keep a close watch on him as his challenges and large size made him a target in school and on the playground. In the small reserve schools in which he found himself in those early years there were few resources available to assist him in his journey.
His mother, who travelled a lot with her young family particularly in the summertime, took a series of courses that made her the “specialist” her son required. “I took summer courses,” she said. “I became the specialist.”
Joshua Yesno arrived at WFI an angry young man.
Rose Yesno spoke of the excitement that her son expressed as he began attending WFI and the community of friends and colleagues he discovered in M’Chigeeng. “The last four years he would talk about his acceptance into the community,” she recalled. Having grown up significantly in the community of Thunder Bay, her son faced many incidents of racism and hatred on the street. “He was larger, most kids were smaller, so they would mob him,” recalled his mother. Despite his great size, Joshua Yesno was known for his remarkable restraint. In M’Chigeeng, he found a very different community. “‘Mom, nobody jumps me here when I walk down the street’,” Ms. Yesno recalled her son telling her of his experience in the Island First Nation community. “It got so he didn’t want to come back to Thunder Bay.”
In WFI Joshua Yesno found a voice through film in which he could tell the stories that were building up inside of him. “He spoke to me of his passion to complete this program,” she said.
Like too many young Anishinaabe Joshua Yesno struggled with addictions as he turned to substances to dull the pain of his experiences, but he had found his path forward and up from that dark passageway into a much brighter future—one lit by his experiences at WFI.
“He deleted his Facebook account,” recalled his mother. “He got rid of all of his friends because they were still doing alcohol and drugs.”
M’Chigeeng Chief Linda Debassige spoke of her interaction with Joshua, who she met shortly after his arrival in her community. She described him as having “a beautiful soul” and a young man who had fulfilled his role and who had been taken back by the creator.
Brock University Chancellor and WFI founder Shirley Cheechoo spoke of her bond with Joshua and his contribution to WFI. “I saw him change before my eyes,” she said. “It is one of my fondest memories.”
Joshua’s best friend and collaborator Isaac Kakegamic spoke of the young man he knew, both from Thunder Bay and at WFI, and the disconnect between the supposedly “shy” young man as described by many and the outgoing and jovial person he knew. But it wasn’t always so obvious. Mr. Kakegamic took a year off from WFI and found a much different Joshua Yesno when he returned. “It was an amazing difference in him when I came back,” he said. “He was a lot more confident, more sure of himself.” WFI helped pull the real Joshua Yesno out and into the world. Mr. Kakegamic sports a distinctive hat as his signature headgear, a hat he said that Joshua Yesno gave him “because he said my head looked cold.”
Together, the trio of Joshua Yesno, Mr. Kakegamic and fellow student Brian Fowler developed a television series concept they named ‘Raven Falls.’ In a surprise announcement at the conculsion of the convocation, Shirley Cheechoo announced that, in a first for the 15 years of WFI’s existence, a production company, Shaftsbury Films, had picked up the project for development into a series.
There was no mistaking the emotion glistening in Mr. Kakegamic’s eyes, first as the shock of the announcement sank in, and then as he ran over to collect the photograph of his friend Joshua before stepping up to the podium to acknowledge the announcement and photographs.
WFI has been making differences in young people’s lives since its inception, in fact that was its very purpose when Ms. Cheechoo and her collaborators set out to create the institution—to allow young Anishinaabe and other young filmmakers to attain the skills and connections to tell their stories. There is no greater testimony to the very real impact and success that WFI has had in that regard than the 2018 WFI graduation series and the story of a young man, Joshua Yesno, his transformation and his dream.
