Quebec Focus: Alanis Obomsawin – Indigenous Film Pioneer

Alanis Obomsawin is one of the world’s most eminent Indigenous filmmakers. Her extraordinary filmography includes more than 60 films, mostly produced with the National Film Board of Canada. The Abenaki filmmaker has received countless international awards and distinctions and she is still shooting films at 91 years old!

This retrospective presents four documentaries, from her first film shot in 1971 to her most recent released in 2022. This will be an opportunity to dive into several injustices that Indigenous communities suffered over the years, such as the neglect and mistreatment of which children have been victims or the demonization of the Mohawks during Oka Crisis’ 78-day armed standoff in 1990, Canada.

According to Alanis Obomsawin: “Documentary film is the one place that our people can speak for themselves. I feel that the documentaries that I’ve been working on have been very valuable for the people, for our people to look at ourselves… and through that be able to make changes that really count for the future of our children to come.”

Curated by Morgane Ferrero, programmer at REGARD – Saguenay International Short Film Festival. The programme was curated for and screened at REGARD 2024.

About Alanis Obomsawin

One of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, Alanis Obomsawin came to cinema from performance and storytelling. Hired by the NFB as a consultant in 1967, she has created an extraordinary body of work—50 films and counting—including landmark documentaries like Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). The Abenaki director has received numerous international honours and her work was showcased in a 2008 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “My main interest all my life has been education,” says Obomsawin, “because that’s where you develop yourself, where you learn to hate, or to love.”

Duration: 95 min.
Age limit: N-16

Program presented by: