Private Project

Sister's Dirge

When a young girl goes missing, her family wrestles with grief. Fearing for the worst, her sister takes the law and justice into her own hands.

  • Ty Giffin
    Director
    Roles
  • Ty Giffin
    Writer
    Roles
  • Ty Giffin
    Producer
    Roles
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Western, Neo-Western, Thriller, Drama, Revenge, Revisionist Western
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 6, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    280 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Ty Giffin

Ty Giffin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but spent most of his life in New Brunswick. He made his directorial debut with Roles (2017) and his follow-up project Sister's Dirge (2018) during his time at the University of New Brunswick.

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Director Statement

Through this project, I have tried to emphasize the ways in which North America’s seminal genre, the Western, has contributed to and reinforced colonialist discourse. To do so, I have created a Neo-Western that reverses the genre’s stereotypes and tropes, to reconsider whose filmic violence is justified and who gets to be the hero. As a white male artist, I think it is important to acknowledge my privileged position, to reflect on it, and to harness it to combat white supremacy and colonialism. Due to my position, it was important that this be an ethical collaboration of allyship. I cannot speak for anyone’s experience, and (it would be naïve of me to claim that I could) but I have tried to analyze and dismantle the cultural practices, discourses and structures that contribute to systemic racism. In bringing the genre into the modern day, it displays that these issues of colonialism live on today. Ultimately, this film is a howl of protest against an unjust system, a tribute to those who have suffered, and a call to action for the film industry. In reworking one of Hollywood's most beloved genres, I hoped to highlight the importance of reconsidering visual representation in resisting against racist colonial discourse.