Walking Through the Fire - Visual Album

Walking Through the Fire: Visual Album is a visually stunning and transformative blend of interviews and music video that brings the magic of collaboration to the screen, with award-winning First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists from across Turtle Island working together with 3x JUNO nominees and Billboard charting Sultans of String to create something extraordinary. 

The Premiere will feature opening remarks with filmmaker/Sultans of String producer Chris McKhool, and a Q&A after the film with Chris joined by Shannon Thunderbird, Marc Meriläinen, Kate Dickson, and John Bailey. Prepare to be absorbed by the captivating synergy and power of Walking Through the Fire as it takes you on a journey where cultures collide, boundaries dissolve, and the universal language of music unites us all. 

From Métis fiddling to an East Coast Kitchen Party, rumba to rock, to the drumming of the Pacific Northwest, experience the beauty and diversity of music from Turtle Island with Elder and poet Dr. Duke Redbird, the Métis Fiddler Quartet, Ojibwe/Finnish Singer-Songwriter Marc Meriläinen (Nadjiwan), Coast Tsm’syen Singer Shannon Thunderbird, The North Sound from the Prairies, Blues singer Crystal Shawanda, Heavy-Wood guitarist Don Ross, Northern Cree pow wow group, Dene singer-songwriter Leela Gilday, Inuit Throat Singers and more, in this musical film experience unlike any other. 82 Minutes.

The Premiere will feature opening remarks with filmmaker/Sultans of String producer Chris McKhool and a Q&A after the film.

 

ABOUT THE FILM

Walking Through the Fire won “Best Musical Film” and “Best Soundtrack” at the Cannes World Film Festival.

“The very fact that you’re doing this tells me that you believe in the validity of our language, you believe in the validity of our art and our music and that you want to help to bring it out. And that’s really what’s important, is for people to have faith that we can do this”
- The Late Honourable Murray Sinclair, Ojibwe Elder and former chair of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission

A central theme running through Walking Through The Fire is the need for the truth of Indigenous experience to be told before reconciliation can begin in earnest. Embedded in the title is the energy of rebirth: fire destroys, but it also nourishes the soil to create new growth, beauty, and resiliency. Walking Through The Fire ensures that we emerge on the other side together, stronger and more unified.

Sultans of String created this project in the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, and Final Report that asks for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to work together as an opportunity to show a path forward. Says bandleader Chris McKhool (whose grandfather was a stowaway from Lebanon at the turn of the last century), “We know that as a society we can’t move ahead without acknowledging and reflecting on the past. Before reconciliation can occur, the full truth of the Indigenous experience in this country needs to be told, so we’ve been calling on Indigenous artists to share with us their stories, their experience, and their lives, so we settler Canadians can continue our learning about the history of genocide, residential schools, and of inter-generational impacts of colonization.”

“The place that we have to start is with truth. Reconciliation will come sometime way in the future, perhaps, but right now, truth is where we need to begin the journey with each other. As human beings, we have to acquire that truth”
- Dr. Duke Redbird – Chippewa/Anishinaabe Elder and poet

PREVIOUS FILM AWARDS WON:
Cannes World Film Festival Best
Istanbul Film Festival
Vancouver Independent Film Festival
Lightbox International Film Festival
Boston Independent Film Awards
LA Independent Film Channel Festival
Hollywood International Golden Age Festival
Scarab Short Film Festival

TRAILER

 

ABOUT SULTANS OF STRING

Bandleader Chris McKhool (Makhoul in Lebanon) has an Egyptian-born mother who happened to play piano, teach classical theory, and feed her young son as much Middle Eastern cuisine as she did music lessons. From there, the powerful violinist developed a taste for multi-genre string sounds and found a like-minded crew of all-world enthusiasts. When McKhool first heard founding guitarist Kevin Laliberté’s rumba rhythm, their musical synergy created Sultans of String’s signature sound – the intimate and playful relationship between violin and guitar. From this rich foundation, the dynamic duo grew, featuring such amazing musical friends as in-the-pocket bass master Drew Birston, and nyckelharpa player Saskia Tomkins. 

Their live resume is similarly stellar. Equally at home in a concert hall, folk and jazz club or festival setting, the Sultans have gigged at JUNOfest, the legendary club Birdland in New York, Celtic Connections Festival (Glasgow) and London’s Trafalgar Square. They have sold out Koerner Hall three times (Toronto’s Carnegie Hall), and performed with the Annapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton Symphony Orchestras. They have played live on CBC’s Canada Live, BBC Radio, BBC TV, Irish National Radio, and the syndicated World Café, Woodsongs, and SiriusXM in Washington. Sultans of String’s musicianship and versatility are also showcased in collaborations with such diverse luminaries as Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Richard Bona (Paul Simon), Alex Cuba, Ruben Blades, Yasmin Levy, Benoit Bourque, Béla Fleck, Crystal Shawanda & Ken Whiteley.