Six shorts by young aboriginal filmmakers will be airing on National Aboriginal Day, June 21, on CBC as part of a co-production by the CBC and the National Film Board.

The program, titled First Stories and hosted by Michelle Thrush, focuses on the life challenges facing today's native youth. Artist Patrick Ross and Apples and Indians are by local emerging talents Ervin Chartrand and Lorne Olson, and the two films are the best of the bunch.

The first short, Hooked Up, follows Thrush's adventures in online friendship and considers aboriginal Internet networking on sites such as rezfox.com. It's standard fare as we watch a web newbie find her way.

The second film is Artist Patrick Ross, in which Chartrand looks at the titular convict-turned-painter. As Ross talks about his life path, from prison to family tragedy to his studio, Chartrand's camera tracks in a circle around him as he paints a new canvas. The effect makes Ross' stories all the more engaging.

Cory Generoux's rap about race and history, Power of a Horse, is set to images of corralled horses and pushes the metaphor button hard. Inspired by the equine power, Generoux riffs on the angry racist preoccupations of his youth before he developed a close relationship with his white grandfather.

Gerald Auger's Walk Alone is a documentary portrait of Sean Bernard, a rapper and former gang leader. Bernard's musical message changes tune once he does hard time and loses his sister to a drug overdose.

Ati-Wihcasin, by Tessa Desnomie, depicts a female elder as she teaches her great-grand-daughter to make a broom out of forest branches. The elder's recollections of buying her first corn broom, mop and vacuum cleaner from the general store of colonialism are fascinating.

Olson's Apples and Indians is a candid portrait of childhood racism. Informed by an elementary teacher that, "like apples, Indians are red on the outside but on the inside they're white. and that makes them OK," Olson spends his life humorously searching for an identity within society.

The final film, Two Spirited by Sharon A. Desjarlais, tells a story of two-spirited energy in the world of powwow women's jingle dancing. Unfortunately, the narration drones on and there's little footage of actual dancing.

Walter Forsberg is a filmmaker with l'Atelier national du Manitoba.