The remarkable
cinematic legacy of world-renowned filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin is more
accessible than ever at the National Film Board of Canada’s online screening
room, NFB.ca,
with over 20 films recently added.
There are now more
than 40 works by Alanis Obomsawin available for free streaming at NFB.ca—spanning over a
half-century of storytelling and activism.
Already home to an unparalleled collection of films by
Indigenous directors via its Indigenous Cinema webpage, NFB.ca today becomes an even more indispensable destination for powerful,
groundbreaking Indigenous cinema.
A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s
most distinguished filmmakers, Obomsawin devotes herself to chronicling the
lives and concerns of First Nations people and exploring issues
of importance to all—with a particular focus on the well-being of
children.
Her concern for the lives of young people is on vivid
display in award-winning works now available online for the first time,
including her uplifting Our People Will Be Healed, taking viewers inside a unique school in the Cree community of Norway
House, north of Winnipeg, where students develop a sense of pride in who they
are and a hope for the future, as well as her moving Hi-Ho Mistahey!, chronicling “Shannen’s Dream,” a national campaign to
provide equitable access to education in safe and suitable schools for First
Nations children.
There are also classics from deeper inside Obomsawin’s
incredible body of the work, with short films from the 1970s like Amisk and her early series L’il’wata and Manawan.
These newly featured works join landmark films already
online, such as Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary
of a Métis Child, Incident at Restigouche and more.
Ms. Obomsawin’s
latest work is Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger—her
53rd film, completed in the 52nd year of her legendary career—which is being
acclaimed at film festivals across Canada this fall. In addition to being a
filmmaker and activist, Obomsawin is an accomplished visual artist and
performer whose work was featured this past summer at the Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts. She was also recently named a Companion of the Order of
Canada—its highest honour.
