A Windigo Tale is poet Armand Garnet Ruffo’s feature directorial debut. The original play script won the CBC Arts Performance Showcase Award, and, in 2003, it went into feature script development with acclaimed Canadian playwright and filmmaker Colleen Murphy. Film production began in the winter of 2006 on Six Nations Reserve in Ontario and was completed in 2008 after additional funding was raised. The second segment was filmed in the Ottawa Valley and in Ottawa itself. The following spring, the film went into post-production at The Banff Centre, in Alberta, and in Ottawa, and it is scheduled to be released in 2009.  It stars Gary Farmer, Andrea Menard, Jani Lauzon, Philip Riccio, David Gardner, Jon-Paul Kouri and introduces writer Lee Maracle and new-comer Elliot Simon to the screen.

To prepare himself for the making of A Windigo Tale, Armand Garnet Ruffo immersed himself in the study of film and took directorial courses with some of Canada’s best known filmmakers, such as Deepa Mehta and Gary Burns. In the writing of the film, he drew on his own Ojibway heritage, family and community support, his familiarity with Aboriginal literature and culture, and extensive research into the history of the Residential School system in Canada.  He is indebted to the many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who committed themselves to the making of this film.