Portraits (62)

Augusta
Anne Wheeler 1976 16 min
This short documentary offers an intimate portrait of Augusta Evans, an 88-year-old Secwépmec woman who has spent her life in the hills of the Williams Lake area of British Columbia, where she lives alone in a log cabin without running water or electricity. Born the daughter of a Chief, Augusta was forced to attend residential school and lost her treaty status when she wed her non-Indigenous husband. After seeing a woman lose her life in childbirth, Augusta taught herself midwifery from a book and delivered many babies, including her own daughter, whom she birthed alone in her cabin. Having lived through many losses and now surviving on a $250 monthly pension that barely covers wood and groceries, Augusta is a cherished member of her community, where she shares her knowledge and songs, and laments that the young people are not learning their language.
Behind the Masks
Tom Shandel 1973 36 min
This short documentary takes a fascinating look at the meaning behind some Indigenous masks from the North Pacific coast. Our guide is professor Claude Levi-Strauss of Paris, a world-renowned anthropologist and authority on the structural analysis of myth. He explains the significant features of 3 masks, and the stories behind them, while also visiting an Indigenous carver on Vancouver Island.
Beating the Streets

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Lorna Thomas 1998 48 min
Beating the Streets traces six years in the lives of Marilyn Brighteyes and Lance Marty, two inner-city Aboriginal teenagers struggling to turn their lives around. And it is the story of Joe Cloutier, the teacher -- and former dropout -- determined to help them.

In Beating the Streets, Marilyn and Lance candidly discuss the abuse and violence that drove them into prostitution and drug dealing. The video also introduces Joe's innovative approach, combining alternative education and popular theatre as a way to get young people off the streets.

The film begins in 1986, when Joe creates the Inner City Drama Association (ICDA) for teens like Marilyn and Lance. They participate in theatre workshops led by actors like Tantoo Cardinal Dances with Wolves and their plays explore important issues like substance abuse, family violence, suicide and racism. Performances lead to discussions with the audience in an effort to seek healthy solutions.

Then, in 1993, Lance encourages Joe to take on the immense challenge of opening an alternative school -- Inner City High -- for teens at risk. And we witness a remarkable transformation in Lance and Marilyn as they become leaders at the school.
The Beauty of My People
Alan Collins 1977 29 min
The film centres on Arthur Shilling, an Ojibwa artist from the Rama Reserve on Lake Couchiching, Ontario. Shilling's artistic evolution is traced, as is his move to Toronto and the difficulties he encountered there. Also discussed is the illness that caused Shilling to re-evaluate his artistic goals. Interviews with the artist and others interested in his paintings are juxtaposed with examples of paintings.
Basket - Lhk'wál'us (Salish Version)
Alanis Obomsawin 1975 7 min
A series of still images follows master Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) basket maker Mathilda Jim, from the harvesting of materials to the creation of a functional work of art. Told in the Lil̓wat7úl language, this short documentary evokes the powerful connection between language, knowledge and culture.

This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about their culture, histories and knowledge.
Bill Reid
Jack Long 1979 27 min
British Columbian Haida artist Bill Reid, jeweller and wood carver, works on a totem pole in the Haida tradition. The film shows the gradual transformation of a bare cedar trunk into a richly carved pole, a gift from the artist to the people of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands). Particularly moving is the raising of the pole by the villagers, as Bill Reid stands by.
Ballads Not Bullets: Tom Jackson
Marie Clements 2014 6 min
This short film tells the story of how actor, singer, producer, and activist Tom Jackson came to use his gift of song to contribute millions of dollars to the fight against poverty and homelessness. With a rich soundtrack of music and Tom's spoken word, the film focuses on the importance of using our talents and skills to give back to society.
Produced by the NFB in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2014 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.
Basket
Alanis Obomsawin 1975 7 min
A series of still images follows master Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) basket maker Mathilda Jim, from the harvesting of materials to the creation of a functional work of art. Told in the Lil̓wat7úl language, this short documentary evokes the powerful connection between language, knowledge and culture.

This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about their culture, histories and knowledge.
Buffy
John Walker 2010 6 min
Folk music icon Buffy Sainte-Marie became internationally renowned with her protest song "Universal Soldier." In this short documentary, she candidly discusses her hopes, creative vision and songwriting skills, as well as her role as an Aboriginal activist. Still a vibrant artist fifty years into her career, she keeps her eyes set on the future.
Bill Reid Remembers
Alanis Obomsawin 2021 24 min
Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida artist Bill Reid always kept Haida Gwaii close to his heart. While working for CBC Radio, he started learning how to make jewelry, then later sculpture, using Haida techniques and images, a move that would forever change his life and the Canadian artistic landscape. Reid’s powerful narration in the film—interspersed with Obomsawin’s own—recounts his complex childhood, his emergence as an accomplished artist, and his profound connection to his homeland. Decades after his passing, Bill Reid remains an enduring force and one of Canada’s greatest artists.
Bill Reid
Jack Long 1979 2 min
A profile of Haida artist Bill Reid and his work.
César's Bark Canoe
Bernard Gosselin 1971 57 min
This 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.
The Colours of Pride

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Henning Jacobsen 1973 27 min
An introduction to four Indigenous painters whose work in recent years has stirred interest in Canada and abroad. Despite the artists' differing styles and origins, their canvases reflect their common heritage. The guide in the film is Tom Hill, a Seneca man who knows art and the Indigenous tradition and encourages his subjects to talk about their own origins and objectives. The painters are Norval Morrisseau, Allen Sapp, Alex Janvier, and Daphne Odjig.
David and Bert
Daryl Duke 1975 27 min
This short documentary is a portrait of two remarkable old-timers of Vancouver Island's west coast. Both are in their 80s; both have an enviable zest for life. Chief David Frank teaches the ancient Indigenous songs and dances of his people to some 60 grandchildren. Bert Clayton still backpacks his prospector's gear through high mountain bush. From different cultures, these two men share a mutual life philosophy and over 40 years of friendship.
Donna's Story
Doug Cuthand 2001 50 min
This intimate documentary paints a portrait of one Cree woman who left life on the streets to re-emerge as a powerful voice counseling Indigenous adults and youth about abuse and addiction. Raised in foster homes and caught up in drugs and prostitution by the age of 13, Donna Gamble shares her exhilarating and tumultuous journey and what motivated her to turn her life around. Together with her mother and daughters, Donna is working to shatter the cycle of addiction that has plagued their family for generations.
Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief
Carol Geddes 1986 28 min
A tribute to Indigenous women everywhere, this short documentary focuses on 5 women from across Canada. Of varied ages and backgrounds, they have achieved success in a variety of careers: as the Yukon legislature's first Indigenous woman minister (Margaret Joe), as a deck hand on a fishing boat (Corinne Hunt), as a teacher (Sophie MacLeod), as a lawyer (Roberta Jamieson), and as a band council chief (Sophie May Pierre - St. Mary’s Indian Band of the Ktunaxa Nation off the Ktunaxa Nation).
Each of these women talks about how she got to where she is today while emphasizing the importance of Indigenous culture - its values, art, and spiritual beliefs - in helping her to develop a sense of self and seeing through rough times, including residential school experiences.
Dream Magic
Katerina Cizek 2008 6 min
This revealing portrait of NFB filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin was shown at a gala ceremony in 2008, where Obomsawin received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Her work has captured some of the most startling events in Canadian history, including the armed standoff between the Canadian Army and Mohawk warriors in 1993. Her films cross a spectrum of social issues, but they are always human. Obomsawin explains in the interview, "For me, a real documentary is when you're really listening to somebody; they are the ones that will tell you what the story is, not you."
Eye Witness No. 4
1948 13 min
In this short newsreel clip from 1948, we see commercial fishing being practiced on a large scale north of The Pas, Manitoba; a doctor from Indian Health Service struggle against the odds to build a better future for Canada's first citizens; a winter carnival in Banff that attracts large crowds to watch ski experts and the crowning of the carnival queen, and; a colour sequence of Barbara Ann Scott, Olympic skating champion.
Eye Witness No. 22
1950 10 min
Alberta's Blood Indians: On their reserve near Cardston, Alberta, the Kainai take action against waste and want, to improve living standards. Music Master: All the world of music reaches blind Paul Doyon, piano virtuoso, through his "seeing fingers." Sky Sentries: Jet planes of the Royal Canadian Air Force's famed 401 Squadron scream through the skies over Montréal in an air defense exercise.
First Stories - ati-wîcahsin (It's Getting Easier)
Tessa Desnomie 2007 6 min
In this short film, filmmaker Tessa Desnomie celebrates the life and times of her grandmother, Jane Merasty. Born and raised on the trapline, this Woodlands Cree woman has witnessed significant changes throughout her vigorous 80 years. First Stories is an emerging filmmaker program for Indigenous youth which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.
First Stories - Patrick Ross
Ervin Chartrand 2006 5 min
In this short film, we meet 29-year-old Patrick Ross, an ex-prison inmate-turned-artist. Watch Patrick as he creates one of his extraordinary paintings while sharing his thoughts on his art, his time in jail, and his hopes for the future. First Stories is an emerging filmmaker program for Indigenous youth which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.
Fighter
Erica Lepage 2007 9 min
After being attacked, a young Mohawk woman decides to overcome her fear and do what she loves, namely box. Story of a Kanesatake fighter out to prove she?s the strongest.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu
Nicolas Renaud 2021 5 min
The soul of the Innu language is the land, water and forests of the fast-disappearing caribou. Through his music, Florent Vollant continues to make this language heard around the world.
The Giant
Denis Nokony 1987 2 min
This animated short tells the story of Edouard Beaupré, a.k.a. the Willow Bunch Giant. At 2.5 m (8’ 3”), he was the tallest Canadian in history. Born in 1881 in a small Métis community south of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, his life was tragically cut short in 1904 while he was “on display” at the St. Louis World’s Fair.
The Great Departure
Kevin Papatie 2008 5 min

For the sake of his children, in 2001 an Algonquin father went back to school. Now, encouraged by his friends in the Kitcisakik community, he is going on to CEGEP.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving Indigenous youth the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
Gene Boy Came Home
Alanis Obomsawin 2007 24 min
This short documentary by celebrated filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin is a portrait of Eugene "Gene Boy" (pronounced Genie Boy) Benedict, from Odanak Indian Reserve (near Montreal, Quebec). At 17, he enlisted in the US Marines and was sent to the frontlines of the Vietnam War. This film is the account of his 2 years of service and his long journey back to Odanak afterwards.
Hands of History
Loretta Todd 1994 51 min
In this acclaimed 1994 documentary, Loretta Todd, a leading figure in Indigenous cinema in Canada, profiles four contemporary female artists—Doreen Jensen, Rena Point Bolton, Jane Ash Poitras and Joane Cardinal-Schubert—who seek to find a continuum from traditional to contemporary forms of expression. Each artist reveals her practice and journey in her own words. The film is a moving testimony to the vital role Indigenous women play in nurturing Indigenous cultures.
John Kim Bell: Born to “Indspire”
Roxann Whitebean 2023 4 min

In this unconventional portrait of John Kim Bell, he reflects on his formative years, which brought him to Broadway and influenced him to become the first Indigenous person in North America to lead a classical orchestra. After spending a lifetime amplifying the voices of Indigenous Peoples through the arts, he elaborates on his trailblazing work, including founding the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, known today as Indspire.
Kainai
Raoul Fox 1973 26 min
This short film brings us to the Kainai (Blood) First Nations Reserve, near Cardston, Alberta, as the Bloods try out a new way of life. With unemployment a key problem, many have pinned their hopes on a job at a pre-fab factory they built. It's a hopeful new endeavour and a completely Indigenous enterprise. What remains to be seen is whether the production line and work wages will fit into the cultural pattern of Indigenous life.
Kwa'nu'te': Micmac and Maliseet Artists
Catherine Anne Martin & Kimberlee McTaggart 1991 41 min
This film profiles a number of Mi’kmaq and Maliseet artists from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, showing their similarities and differences, samples of their work and the sources of their inspiration. It offers a remarkable look at Indigenous art and spirituality in Atlantic Canada.
Klee Wyck
Grant Crabtree 1946 15 min
This short documentary from the Canadian Artists series presents the art of Emily Carr, the Canadian painter who found exciting subject matter on British Columbia's Pacific Coast, with its giant trees and its Indigenous villages, totems and carvings. When Carr visited the Ucluelet Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island in 1898, the Nuu-chah-nulth people gave her the name Klee Wyck, meaning “Laughing One.” Her canvases are shown here amidst the landscapes and places where they were painted. At the end of the film Tse-shaht painter George Clutesi is pictured as Carr left her paintbrushes and other materials to him.
K'i Tah Amongst the Birch
Melaw Nakehk'o 2020 10 min
Filmmaker/activist Melaw Nakehk’o has spent the pandemic with her family at a remote land camp in the Northwest Territories, “getting wood, listening to the wind, staying warm and dry, and watching the sun move across the sky.” In documenting camp life—activities like making fish leather and scraping moose hide—she anchors the COVID experience in a specific time and place.
Like the Trees
Kathleen Shannon 1974 14 min
This short film is told in the first person by Rose, a Métis woman from northern Alberta who has left a difficult life in the city to rediscover her roots by returning to her Woodland Cree community. Rose reveals the racism, isolation and health issues she faced when trying to make a life for herself outside her home community, and how she is able to help others now that she has reconnected to her culture.
The film is part of a 1970s series of eleven films title Working Mothers by producer/director Kathleen Shannon, exposing inequality for women in accessing education, childcare, and equal pay. These films led to the creation of Studio D at the National Film Board, the world’s first feminist production studio. 
The Lake Man
Raymond Garceau 1963 27 min

Alexis Ladouceur's life has the tranquility of his surroundings and he belongs to the lake as much as the fish he lifts from the net or the flight of ducks arrowing over the reeds. By contrast, his brother, who farms nearby, seems of a different world. The film reflects the past story of the Métis, people of mixed French and First Nations' heritage, and the life of their communities.
Long Lance

Bernie Dichek 1986 55 min
Was he a black man, a white man, or an Indigenous leader? This documentary looks at legendary and fascinating impostor Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance. In the early 1900s, he garnered international acclaim as a soldier, journalist, writer, photographer, bon vivant and movie star. But despite his very public life, his origins remain a mystery. Based on a book by Donald Smith, this film outlines Long Lance's almost unbelievable life story.
Man Who Chooses the Bush
Tom Radford 1975 28 min
For five or six months at a time, Frank Ladouceur lives alone, trapping muskrat in the vast, desolate wilderness of northern Alberta. His family last visited him there some 14 years ago, and Frank’s own visits to the family home in Fort Chipewyan are few and far between. This is the story of an independent Métis man who is remarkably determined and self-sufficient, and who is ceaselessly called to return to the bush. Early experiences at Holy Angels residential school are recounted by his daughter. A Christmas play at the local school is presented in Cree. After a family Christmas meal, the fiddle and guitar are taken out and the Red River Jig begins.
The Nitinaht Chronicles

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Maurice Bulbulian 1997 2 h 22 min
This feature documentary profiles an Indigenous community coming to terms with a legacy of sexual abuse, incest and family violence. The film follows the Ditidaht First Nation over a seven-year period, after a respected elder is found guilty of sexual assault. Award-winning filmmaker Maurice Bulbulian records the community's stories, becoming a part of their healing process. With the hope and courage of participants, the powerful interviews in this film play a key role in helping the community overcome the cycle of abuse. The continuing, devastating effects of the residential school system are also revealed; in this system, physical, emotional and sexual abuse were all too often routine. The Nitinaht Chronicles contains strong language, including graphic sexual detail. Please preview before showing to an audience.
NFB Pause with Courtney Montour
Simon Rouillard 2021 2 min
"Mary was a Mohawk woman from Kahnawake, the same community that I'm from. She is one of the key women to challenge discrimination against Indigenous women in Canada's Indian Act." Mohawk filmmaker Courtney Montour describes her new documentary on Mary Two-Axe Earley, whose fight for the rights of First Nations women made her a pivotal figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement.
Nonoonse Anishinabe Ishichekewin Ka Kanawentank

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1980 10 min
Western pioneers knew that sugar could be made from the sap of the Manitoba maple. But the trees were small, the sap was thin, and the tastier product of Québec and Ontario was cheap and easy to get. The settler soon turned away from the arduous annual harvest and the Manitoba maple became just another tree. But not for Nonoonse. Forty years ago her grandmother brought her to Sugar Island. Since then she has returned every spring to gather the sweet sap. Filmed on Lake Manitoba, near the Ebb'n'Flow Reserve, Nonoonse is both a clear description of sugar-making and a quiet statement on the importance of the tradition to the Saultaux of the region. (Bilingual: English and Saulteaux.)
Our Dear Sisters
Kathleen Shannon 1975 14 min
Alanis Obomsawin, an Indigenous woman who earns her living by singing and making films, is the mother of an adopted child. She talks about her life, her people, and her responsibilities as a single parent. Her observations shake some of our cultural assumptions.
O'Siem
Gillian Darling 1996 53 min
This documentary offers an engrossing portrait of Gene Harry, devoted husband, father, and foster father. He's also a Church Minister, champion dragon boat racer, long-boat canoe paddler, and Eagle Spirit Dancer in the traditional Salish Long House. In short, he's remarkable. And when he speaks, people listen. Discover why with this up-close look a the humble, yet charismatic, First Nations spiritual healer.
Ojigkwanong - Encounter with an Algonquin Sage
Lucie Ouimet 2000 26 min
William Commanda, whose Algonquin name is Ojigkwanong, was born on the Maniwaki reserve in Quebec in 1913. The story of his early life is a familiar one: the loss of Indigenous culture, numbing poverty and escape into alcohol. In 1961 Commanda, then chief of his reserve, was terminally ill. He had a vision that would transform his life and those of his people. Imagining a Circle of all Nations, his first gesture was to reconcile the Algonquins and Iroquois. Since then, he has devoted himself to the reconciliation of peoples and cultures. The message of this old sage is universal: healing is the main priority and can only be achieved through forgiveness and tolerance. In this, he shares much with other remarkable individuals who managed to wash politics clean of resentment: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. In French with English subtitles.
Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer
Carol Geddes 1997 50 min
This documentary, by filmmaker Carol Geddes, is a unique portrait of George Johnston, a photographer who was himself a creator of portraits and a keeper of his culture. Johnston cared deeply about the traditions of the Tlingit people, and he recorded a critical period in the history of the Tlingit nation. As Geddes says, his legacy was "to help us dream the future as much as to remember the past."
Puberty - Part 1
Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 min
An intimate portrait of Marie Leo, a Sto:lo woman who was adopted into a Líl̓wat family as a baby. Marie’s gentle narrative of her remarkable early childhood demonstrates a deep connection to culture, land and family that continues to endure.

This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge.
The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau

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Duke Redbird & Henning Jacobsen 1974 28 min
In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Indigenous artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world. Jack Pollock, the Toronto art gallery owner who discovered Morrisseau's paintings in the early 1960s, comments on what makes them so unique.
Paul Kane Goes West
Gerald Budner 1972 14 min
This short documentary showcases the work Paul Kane painted in the Canadian northwest in the mid-1800s. Travelling overland west to the Pacific in the mid-1800s, Kane immortalized the area’s great Indigenous Peoples, Chiefs, ceremonies, war parties, buffalo hunts, rapids and waterfalls. In this film, his canvases are projected with lighting that brings to life every glowing detail.
Puberty Part 1 - Kwaozán'tsut ti pál7a 1 (Salish Version)
Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 min
An intimate portrait of Marie Leo, a Sto:lo woman who was adopted into a Líl̓wat family as a baby. Marie’s gentle narrative of her remarkable early childhood demonstrates a deep connection to culture, land and family that continues to endure.

This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge.
Places Not Our Own
Derek Mazur 1986 57 min
Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this dramatic film set in 1929 depicts how Canada's West, home to generations of Métis, was taken over by the railroads and new settlers. As a result, the Métis became a forgotten people, forced to eke out a living as best they could. At the forefront is Rose, a woman determined to provide her children with a normal life and an education despite the odds. But due to their harsh circumstances, a devastating and traumatic event transpires instead.
Starblanket
Donald Brittain 1973 27 min
At twenty-six, Noel Starblanket was one of the youngest Indigenous chiefs in North America--twice elected chief of the Starblanket Reserve, and also elected vice-president of all-Saskatchewan Indigenous organization. His great-grandfather's advice was to "learn the wit and cunning of the White man." That he did. Here he is seen in action, a chief with a briefcase, working with government officials for grants, running for public office, talking down his opposition, and solving the domestic problems of his reserve.
The Spirit of Annie Mae

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Catherine Anne Martin 2002 1 h 13 min
In 1975, Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, a 30-year-old Nova Scotia born-Mi'kmaq, was shot dead, execution style, on a desolate road in South Dakota. Nearly three decades later the crime remains a mystery. Aquash was highly placed in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a radical First Nations organization that took up arms in the 1970s to fight for the rights of their people. The Spirit of Annie Mae is the story of Aquash's remarkable life and her brutal murder. It is a moving tribute from the women who were closest to her: the two daughters who fled with their mother when she hid from the FBI; the young women she inspired to embrace Native culture; and the other activists, including Buffy Sainte-Marie and investigative journalist Minnie Two Shoes, who stood in solidarity with her. All are still trying to understand why she met such a violent death. Follow them on their journey as they celebrate the life of a woman who inspired a generation of Indigenous people.
Spudwrench - Kahnawake Man
Alanis Obomsawin 1997 57 min
This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin introduces us to Randy Horne, a high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people's culture and traditions, he was known as "Spudwrench" during the 1990 Oka crisis.
Offering a unique look behind the barricades at one man's impassioned defense of sacred territory, the film is both a portrait of Horne and the generations of daring Mohawk construction workers that have preceded him.
Song of Eskasoni

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Brian Guns 1993 28 min
Eskasoni is the home of celebrated Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe. This Cape Breton village is enjoying a revival of Indigenous traditions and spirituality which inspires much of Rita Joe's writing. For twenty years her poetry and her presence have touched thousands with dignity. This video is a celebration of the spiritual pride of the Mi’kmaq as embodied in Rita Joe's writings and her life.
Something Right
Tracy McLaren 2009 4 min
Daniel has lost the rights to his children. He paints, passionately, so that his daughter can say, “My dad’s an artist.”

Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile
Standing Alone
Colin Low 1982 57 min
Pete Standing Alone of the Kainai Nation was more at home in the White man's culture than his own as a young man. However, confronted with the realization that his children knew very little about their origins, he became determined to pass down to them the customs and traditions of his ancestors. This hour-long film is the powerful biographical study of a twenty-five-year span in Pete's life, from his early days as an oil-rig roughneck, rodeo rider and cowboy, to the present as an Indigenous man concerned with preserving his Nation's spiritual heritage in the face of an energy-oriented industrial age.
Totem Talk
Annie Fraziér Henry 1997 22 min
Traditional Northwestern Indigenous spiritual images combine with cutting-edge computer animation in this surreal short film about the power of tradition. Three urban Indigenous teens are whisked away to an imaginary land by a magical raven, and there they encounter a totem pole. The totem pole's characters—a raven, a frog and a bear—come to life, becoming their teachers, guides and friends.
Features a special interview with J. Bradley Hunt, the celebrated Heiltsuk artist on whose work the characters in Totem Talk are based.
Tomson Highway: kipimâtisinaw tapâhpeyahk
Barry Bilinsky 2022 5 min
An intimate glimpse into the life of Cree author, musician, playwright, and storyteller Tomson Highway, who is the 2022 recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Through his warmth and Cree humour Tomson invites us into his home in Gatineau, Quebec, where he shares stories about his parents, reasons for living, and the power of music as a language in and of itself.
Greetings: Te'skennongweronne - Yves Sioui Durand
Carlos Ferrand 2017 4 min
In a space outside of time, Indigenous playwright Yves Sioui Durand encounters the masks that have been created for his plays over a period of more than 30 years. Inhabited by the spirit of the Elders, these faces influence the actors’ every move as they bring to life the memory of the First Peoples of the Americas.
Urban Elder
Robert S. Adams 1997 28 min
In the last forty years, Canada has seen a major population shift of Indigenous peoples to the urban centres like Toronto which has become home to the largest urban Indigenous population in the country (an estimated 65,000).

Today's urban Indigenous peoples (both those with a direct connection to land-based reservation life, and those who have always lived in cities) are developing an urban Indigenous culture. They are discovering ways to integrate important expressions of traditional culture into city life, including the tradition of the Elder: a person of great wisdom who dispenses advice, settles disputes, and acts as a model and arbitrator of acceptable behaviour.

Meet Vern Harper, Urban Elder, who walks the "Red Road" in a fast-paced, urban landscape. The camera follows Vern as he leads a sweat lodge purification ceremony, watches his 11-year-old daughter Cody at a classical ballet rehearsal, conducts a private healing ceremony, participates in a political march of 150,000 people, and counsels Indigenous prisoners at Warkworth Federal Prison.

In his own voice, Vern Harper tells the Urban Elder story of how he reaches into the past for his people's traditions, blending those old ways into the present so that the future can be a time of personal growth and spiritual strength.
Very Present
Conor McNally 2020 5 min
How does prolonged confinement shape our experience of time? Filmmaker Conor McNally explores the question in the company of his brother Riley, a young man who’s learning to cope with a new—yet strangely familiar—reality.
Writing the Land
Kevin Lee Burton 2007 7 min
In this short documentary, a Musqueam elder rediscovers his Native language and traditions in the city of Vancouver, near where the Musqueam people have lived for thousands of years.
Writing the Land captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city - the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a sudden flash of birds in flight and the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory.
WaaPaKe (Tomorrow)

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Jules Arita Koostachin 2023 1 h 20 min
For generations, the suffering of residential school Survivors has radiated outward, impacting Indigenous families and communities. Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s deeply personal documentary WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) moves beyond intergenerational trauma, with an invitation to unravel the tangled threads of silence and unite in collective freedom and power.
Yuxweluptun: Man of Masks
Dana Claxton 1998 21 min
This short documentary serves as a portrait of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, one of Canada's most important painters. We meet him at the Bisley Rifle Range in Surrey, England, where he's literally shooting the Indian Act in a performance piece called "An Indian Shooting the Indian Act." It's in protest of the ongoing effects of the Act's legislation on Indigenous people. We then follow him back to Canada, for interviews with the artist and a closer look at his work.

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