RISING THROUGH THE FRAY

RISING THROUGH THE FRAY

COURTNEY MONTOUR | CANADA | 2025 | 88 MIN | ENGLISH FST

3pm > [before screening] > IN CONVERSATION WITH FILMMAKER COURTNEY MONTOUR AND THE DOCUMENTARY’S CREATIVE TEAM

COURTNEY MONTOUR | CANADA | 2025 | 88 MIN | ENGLISH FST

DocumentaryINDIGIQUEER VOICESI+N CONNEXEI+N x CMF SERIESCOMPETITION

Presented by

CANADA MEDIA FUND LOW LIFE INDIGENOUS SCREEN OFFICE TELEFILM CANADA

Synopsis

Uniting from across continents to bring representation to the sport they love, Indigenous Rising laces up their skates to claim their space on the roller derby track. Indigenous Rising is the first team in roller derby history to break the barriers of representing a single country at the Roller Derby World Cup—igniting a movement that pulsates throughout the sport and within each other. Rising Through the Fray follows the team as it welcomes a new generation of players determined to change the face of roller derby—an inclusive, female-empowering sport still lacking diversity. With a compassionate, candid lens, Courtney Montour weaves energetic on-track game play with tender moments in teammates’ daily lives as skaters from over 30 Indigenous Nations navigate and learn each other’s play styles at tournaments and find strength within each other to compete and skate onto the track with pride. Intimate portraits of teammates Sour Cherry, Krispy and Hawaiian Blaze reveal stories of displacement and disconnection from their culture and identities and the journey of finding belonging within team Indigenous Rising. Rising Through the Fray offers a poignant exploration of resiliency, healing and reconnection of a roller derby family with a bond that goes beyond sport.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Courtney Montour is a Kanien’kehá:ka writer and director from Kahnawà:ke whose work have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Margaret Mead. Her short Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again (2021) won Best Documentary Short at imagineNATIVE, Media Arts Festival and the American Indian Film Festival. Named one of Playback’s 2024 TV Directors of the Year for CBC’s The Knowing, Montour is also a recipient of the NDN Collective Changemaker Fellowship (2022) and King Charles III’s Coronation Medal. Rising Through the Fray is her debut feature documentary.

Producer

Jason Brennan

Writer

Courtney Montour

Cinematographer

Kristen Brown

PARTNERS

CANADA MEDIA FUND

LOW LIFE

INDIGENOUS SCREEN OFFICE

TELEFILM CANADA

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