FESTIVAL PREMIERE
Captain
Director: William Mazzoleni Valin
Captain, a former gunner in the Canadian Navy and now an offshore fisherman, hopes his daughter MIA will take over his business. He wants to protect her from the drugs and corruption seeping into the reserve from the nearby white village. When Mia reveals she wants to move to the city, Captain represses his anger, slipping into apathy as the memories of his time at residential school resurface. When he learns that Mia has left the reserve and is in danger, he immediately leaves the open sea and hits the road toward Montreal, hoping to find her.
*The usage of the words: reserve and white; refers to the time period of the film.
CAST & CREDITS
Director
William Mazzoleni Valin
Writer
Sylvain Sly Raymond, William Mazzoleni Valin
Producer
Julie O'Bomsawin
Key Cast
Wayne Charles Baker, McKenzie Kahnekaro:roks Deer, Kathia Rock, Douglas Grégoire
Director Statement
Captain pulses like a thriller, revealing the raw heartbeat of an Indigenous community in the 1990s—scarred by a post-colonial past whose whispers still shadow our days, and by the horrific reality of our missing and murdered Indigenous women. Filmed in English and Innu-aimun—a language once banned, called dirt —it lays bare the quiet racism millions still carry. This story is urgent. Captain stands tall, a symbol of strength and respect, calling us to rise—for the generations to come.
DIRECTORS BIO
Born in 1983 to an Ilnu father and an Italian mother, William Mazzoleni Valin is known for his short film Pow-Wow. Inspired by the life among Quebec’s First Nations, the short film Pow-Wow is a work of fiction filled with hope for his culture. This short film earned him a selection in the “Talent tout court” section at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018, as well as several nominations and awards at other festivals for Best Short Film and Best Indigenous Director.
Shortly thereafter, he released his fourth short film, Le Pigeon, which was screened in Quebec theaters as a supporting feature before feature-length films. In 2019, he received the “Télé-Québec Audience Award” at the Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Film Festival.
He directed the children’s TV series Savoirs Légendaires for APTN. The series highlights First Nations legends told to children. For this project, Samian meets with elders in their communities to share and deepen understanding of traditional teachings. In addition, William directed both seasons of the docu-variety show Sur les traces d’Anachnid for ARTV, which explores emerging Indigenous artists and diversity in both Montreal and Mani-utenam. He also contributed in his own way to National Indigenous Peoples Day by co-directing Le grand solstice, Season 4, hosted by Elisapie.
In addition, William directed and co-produced the video and photo content for the 2024 launch of the Abenaki Museum’s new exhibition, in partnership with La bande à Paul. He also recorded a fictional podcast for Radio-Canada’s OHdio channel, an adaptation of the novel NISH by author Isabelle Picard, set in a high school in an Innu community on the border of Labrador. He recently co-directed the youth fiction series spun off from the same project, currently airing on TOU.TV and soon to air on Radio-Canada and APTN.
His extensive experience in advertising, music videos, TV series, and other projects has led him to his first feature-length fiction film, Captain (Capitaine).
