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First Occupants (to 1500) (16)
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Available in English Options
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Angkor, the Lost CityRoger Blais & Morten Parker 1961 12 minA pictorial essay on the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor. The greatest assembly of sculpture the world has ever known--a whole metropolis of palaces and temples, recovered from the jungle. Six hundred monuments, picture-tapestries in stone, and Angkor-Vat, a mile-square temple of grey sandstone, reveal the glories of the Khmers, ancestors of today's Cambodians. -
César's Bark CanoeBernard Gosselin 1971 57 minThis documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Atikamekw of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Indigenous peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.
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C'est l'avironNorman McLaren 1944 3 minOne of a series of French-Canadian folk songs, this film was illustrated by Norman McLaren for the Chants populaires series. White gouache drawings on black cards were photographed with overlapping 'zooms' to suggest the forward movement of a canoe along rivers and lakes. This film appears in Chants populaires no. 5 and in Chants populaires no. 6.
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The HorseMichael Mills 1978 1 minThis animated short illustrates how at one time horses provided man with unprecedented mobility and how the arrival of the iron horse brought this era to an end.
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High SteelDon Owen 1965 13 minThis short documentary offers a dizzying view of the Mohawk of Kahnawake who work in Manhattan erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. Famed for their skill in working with steel, the Mohawks demonstrate their nimble abilities in the sky. As a counterbalance, the viewer is also allowed a peek at their quieter community life on the Kahnawake Reserve, in Quebec.
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How to Build an IglooDouglas Wilkinson 1949 10 minThis classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut and place snow blocks and create an entrance--a shelter completed in one-and-a-half hours. The commentary explains that the interior warmth and the wind outside cement the snow blocks firmly together. As the short winter day darkens, the two builders move their caribou sleeping robes and extra skins indoors, confident of spending a snug night in the midst of the Arctic cold!
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The Hunters (Asivaqtiin)Mosha Michael 1977 13 minReleased in 1977, this beautifully paced short was photographed, directed, edited and narrated by Mosha Michael — one of Canada’s first Inuk filmmakers. Michael offers a first-hand account of a three-week Arctic hunting excursion, a rehabilitative trip undertaken by young offenders and their families. Dropping anchor at various points throughout Frobisher Bay, they fish for cod, hunt for seal and caribou, and renew family and community ties. Shooting on a Super 8 camera and providing his own narration, Michael crafts an engaging document of Inuk life in the 1970s. An original score features performances by Kowmageak Arngnakolak and Michael himself.
Viewer Advisory: This film contains scenes of animal slaughter. -
How to Build an Igloo (Inuktitut version)2011 10 minThis classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut and place snow blocks and create an entrance--a shelter completed in one-and-a-half hours. The commentary explains that the interior warmth and the wind outside cement the snow blocks firmly together. As the short winter day darkens, the two builders move their caribou sleeping robes and extra skins indoors, confident of spending a snug night in the midst of the Arctic cold!
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History of Manawan - Part Two - Atisokan nte Manawanik minowach kenokok (Atikamekw Version)Alanis Obomsawin 1972 21 minAtikamekw elder Cézar Néwashish continues to recount the history of the community of Manawan that first began in The History of Manawan: Part One. As Christianity and European customs take deeper root in the community – abetted by residential schools and aggressive assimilationist government policies – seemingly irreversible changes to significant customs begin to unfold. Despite these struggles, the people carry on. This short is part of the Manawan series directed by Alanis Obomsawin.
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History of Manawan - Part TwoAlanis Obomsawin 1972 21 minAtikamekw elder Cézar Néwashish continues to recount the history of the community of Manawan that first began in The History of Manawan: Part One. As Christianity and European customs take deeper root in the community – abetted by residential schools and aggressive assimilationist government policies – seemingly irreversible changes to significant customs begin to unfold. Despite these struggles, the people carry on. This short is part of the Manawan series directed by Alanis Obomsawin.
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Shining Mountains - The Ancient OnesGuy Clarkson 2005 47 minThis documentary from the Shining Mountains series follows mountain guide, pilot and cinematographer Guy Clarkson on an ecological journey through the Rockies. Clarkson explores the area’s rock, ice, flora and fauna, which have, for eons, adjusted without complaint to every fluctuation in the natural order of things. Since the arrival of Europeans, however, the damage to ecosystems and tribes alike has approached a point of no return. From the glaciers of the Columbia Ice Fields, to the wolf packs of Yellowstone National Park, to the sacred hunting grounds of the Blackfoot nations, Clarkson finds perspective in the wisdom of the experts and elders who know this region best.
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The Vinland MysteryWilliam Pettigrew 1984 28 minThis short documentary depicts the search, discovery and authentication of the only known Norse settlement in North America - Vinland the Good. Mentioned in Icelandic manuscripts and speculated about for over two centuries, Vinland is known as "the place where the wild grapes grow" and was thought to be on the eastern coast between Virginia and Newfoundland. In 1960 a curious group of house mounds was uncovered at l'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland by Drs. Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad of Norway. Added to the United Nations World Heritage List, l'Anse aux Meadows is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
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Who Were the Ones?Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell 1972 7 minThis short film was created by a group of Indigenous filmmakers at the NFB in 1972 and is essentially a song by Willie Dunn sung by Bob Charlie and illustrated by John Fadden: "Who were the ones who bid you welcome and took you by the hand, inviting you here by our campfires, as brothers we might stand?" The song expresses bitter memories of the past, of trust repaid by treachery, and of friendship debased by exploitation upon the arrival of European colonists.
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Wapos Bay: GuardiansDennis Jackson 2007 23 minIn this episode from the Wapos Bay series, T-Bear, Talon, Jacob and Mushom think they have videotaped a Bigfoot around Wapos Bay. Jacob and T-Bear try to sell the footage for 6 million dollars to Steve from Austin, Texas (Lee Majors), who works for the O.S.I. (Observation of Sasquatch Institute). Raven learns about sharing with her mother, Sarah, and grandmother, Kohkum, while picking berries for the elders of the community.
Wapos Bay is a stop-motion animation series that follows the adventures of 3 kids from a Cree community in northern Saskatchewan. -
White-Whale Hunters of Anse-Aux-BasquesRené Bonnière & Pierre Perrault 1960 29 minOn the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, the Otis family hunts for white whales and seals with rusty old rifles in hand-crafted boats. This is the traditional method of the Basque whalers who frequented the coast in the 16th century.
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The Washing of TearsHugh Brody 1994 54 minIn 1903, a unique and magnificent Whaler's shrine was shipped from Friendly Cove, on the far northwest coast of Canada, to the Museum of Natural History, New York. The shrine had lain at the cultural heart of the Mowachaht, whale hunters and fishermen who had lived at Friendly Cove for thousands of years. In the 1960s and '70s, all but one family left their ancient village--they moved to Vancouver Island, to a new site under the walls of a pulp mill. They suffered extremes of pollution, violence, alcohol.... Then, in the 1990s, in defiance of the agony of their history and to overcome the grief of the present, the Mowachaht and their neighbours, the Muchalaht, revived their songs and dances, revisited their shrine and rediscovered their pride.
