Like so many people of Aboriginal heritage in Canada, the lead characters in Tkaronto – a local feature that makes its world premiere at imagineNATIVE this weekend – feel torn between two cultures and at home in neither one. An artist struggling to find a way to connect with her Ojibway roots, Jolene (Melanie McLaren) feels she's reached that difficult juncture when “we stop pointing to our parents and saying, ‘Hey, they're Aboriginal,' and start asking, ‘How am I Aboriginal?'”

It's a question that crops up in many works at imagineNATIVE, Toronto's annual festival of film and media works by indigenous people. Tkaronto (; Oct. 21, 6:30pm, Royal, 608 College) handles it with an unusual amount of poise and insight. The quality of writer-director Shane Belcourt's feature debut – named after our city's original Mohawk name – is all the more remarkable when you consider that it was made in six months on a measly budget of $20,000.

Based on Belcourt's experience as the son of a Metis father, the movie portrays the crises of Jolene and Ray (Duane Murray), two thirtysomethings who can't figure out a way to square up their urban lifestyles and material ambitions with what an elder (played by Lorne Cardinal) calls “blood memory.” But for all of Tkaronto's heavy themes, the film has a sense of lightness that makes it one of the year's most appealing local indie features.

Another fest highlight, Water Flowing Together (; Oct. 18, 7pm, Al Green Theatre, 750 Spadina Av.) approaches many of the same issues while wearing ballet shoes. Gwendolen Cates' doc is a biographical portrait of Jock Soto, long-time star of the New York City Ballet. As the son of a Puerto Rican man and a Navajo woman, he too faces pressing issues about his identity, especially once he decides to retire from dancing and start his life anew. Though Cates' film doesn't penetrate very deeply, Soto is an excellent subject thanks to his athletic grace, personal charm and eagerness to discover exactly how he's Aboriginal. Of course, answering that question is not gonna be easy.