APTN broadcasts a wide variety of Hollywood films, with features four nights per week and additional matinees on weekends.
A lot of viewers wonder how we choose our films. If APTN is an Aboriginal network, what does that have to do with Hollywood films?
Believe it or not, every movie APTN airs has an Aboriginal connection.
APTN’s criteria for choosing films include those with actors who are Canadian Aboriginal (First Nations, Inuit or Métis), Native American (USA) and/or have Native American ancestry or are indigenous to their respective countries.
Whether in starring roles, secondary roles or cameo appearances, actors such as Johnny Depp, Jessica Biel, Val Kilmer, Cameron Diaz, Cher and Hilary Swank are just a few stars in the movies we show who have Native American ancestry.
Of course Aboriginal actors such as Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves), and Gordon Tootoosis (Legends of the Fall) are more obvious to most viewers.
And many recognise Adam Beach as an Aboriginal actor – he’s mostly known for his roles in Windtalkers and Flags of Our Fathers, but does anyone remember him as the desert dweller with horn-rimmed glasses inJoe Dirt?
Sometimes the Aboriginal connection is not on-screen. We’ll acquire films produced or co-produced by Aboriginal peoples.
Movies such as Atanarjuat and Barking Water, and Chris Eyre titles such as Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time and Smoke Signals have been very popular with our viewers.
Regular viewers know that our Friday nights movies offer a little extra.
Friday Night Flicks, as we call them, feature hosts (and fictional roommates) Chantelle and The Kernel, a wise-cracking dog puppet who never fails to give his unique and often unusual perspectives of the night’s featured movie.
Check out the Friday Night Flick site at http://aptn.ca/pages/flick for the full story about Chantelle and The Kernel, as well as bloopers, movie quotes, upcoming flicks, photos, videos and more.
So what’s showing in May? On Friday May 6, don’t miss Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire, a sports agent who has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it.
He puts his new philosophy to the test as an independent with the only athlete who stays with him, Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. (with an Oscar winning performance).
And friggatriskaidekaphobiacs will be relieved to know that on Friday the 13th they won’t have to venture outdoors as we’ll broadcast Charlie’s Angels, a modern twist on the 1970s television show, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.
Then on Saturday May 14, viewers can take in White Oleander, the story ofa young teenager (Alison Lohman) who journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.
