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  • Age of the Buffalo
    Age of the Buffalo
    Austin Campbell 1964 14 min
    A vivid recollection of the free west of the North American Indigenous Peoples and the vast herds of buffalo that once thundered across the plains. From paintings of the mid-1800s, the animation camera creates a most convincing picture of the buffalo hunt, both as the Indigenous People and, disastrously, the white hunters practised it.
  • The Ballad of Crowfoot
    The Ballad of Crowfoot
    Willie Dunn 1968 10 min
    Released in 1968 and often referred to as Canada’s first music video, The Ballad of Crowfoot was directed by Willie Dunn, a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer and activist who was part of the historic Indian Film Crew, the first all-Indigenous production unit at the NFB. The film is a powerful look at colonial betrayals, told through a striking montage of archival images and a ballad composed by Dunn himself about the legendary 19th-century Siksika (Blackfoot) chief who negotiated Treaty 7 on behalf of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The IFC’s inaugural release, Crowfoot was the first Indigenous-directed film to be made at the NFB.
  • St. Laurent Pilgrimage
    St. Laurent Pilgrimage
    Dan J. McCrimmon 1985 2 min
    This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series documents the annual pilgrimage that members of Saskatchewan’s Métis Catholic community make to St. Laurent, a village in the Duck Lake area that became the Métis nation’s spiritual centre at the time of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion.
  • Circle of the Sun
    Circle of the Sun
    Colin Low 1960 29 min
    This short documentary by Colin Low is an invitation to a gathering of the Káínaa of Alberta - as the Sun Dance is captured on film for the first time. The film shows how the theme of the circle reflects the bands' connection to wildlife and also addresses the predicament of the young generation, those who have relinquished their ties with their own culture but have not yet found a firm place in a changing world.
  • Caribou Hunters
    Caribou Hunters
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    Stephen Greenlees 1951 18 min
    A doc about the Cree and Chippewa people of northern Manitoba. Made in the mid 20th century, it is dated in tone, but provides insight into the vital relationship that existed between First Nations and the caribou herds that sustained them.
  • Eye Witness No. 22
    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.
  • Eye Witness No. 4
    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.
  • Foster Child
    Foster Child
    Gil Cardinal 1987 43 min
    An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this auto-biographical documentary he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her. Considered a milestone in documentary cinema, it addressed the country’s internal colonialism in a profoundly personal manner, winning a Special Jury Prize at Banff and multiple international awards. “Foster Child is one of the great docs to come out of Canada, and nobody but Gil could have made it,” says Jesse Wente, director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office. “Gil made it possible for us to think about putting our own stories on the screen, and that was something new and important.”
  • Giiwe - This is Home
    Giiwe - This is Home
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    Merle Robillard  &  Andrew Lau 2020 27 min
    Between 1965 and 1984, Canadian child protection workers removed more than 20,000 indigenous children from their homes on reserves and placed them in foster care or put them up for adoption without the consent of their families or bands. Almost all of these children were placed with white, middle class families, and were effectively stripped of their cultural identities. Many bounced from foster home to foster home, ran away, and developed addictions in order to cope. Some of these children were treated like slave labour and/or experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

    The majority developed emotional problems later in life and had difficulty developing a strong sense of identity in either the Euro-Canadian or their indigenous cultures. Brent Mitchell, who was removed from his Ojibwe home near Sagkeeng First Nations, Manitoba when he was just a year old and moved to New Zealand with his foster parents when he was five where he endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

    Brent Mitchell’s story clearly illustrates the complete lack of sensitivity, respect and consideration to aboriginal children to their culture and family. In the summer of 2017, we met Brent and his wife, Yolanda who traveled from New Zealand to Winnipeg, Manitoba. During the week we spent together, we witnessed the connection grow between Brent, his sister, Penny and brother, Ron as well as with their identity and culture.
  • The Giant
    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.
  • Hollow Water
    Hollow Water
    Bonnie Dickie 2000 48 min
    This documentary profiles the tiny Ojibway community of Hollow Water on the shores of Lake Winnipeg as they deal with an epidemic of sexual abuse in their midst. The offenders have left a legacy of denial and pain, addiction and suicide. The Manitoba justice system was unsuccessful in ending the cycle of abuse, so the community of Hollow Water took matters into their own hands. The offenders were brought home to face justice in a community healing and sentencing circle. Based on traditional practices, this unique model of justice reunites families and heals both victims and offenders. The film is a powerful tribute to one community's ability to heal and create change.
  • Heartbeat of a Nation
    Heartbeat of a Nation
    Eric Janvier 2022 20 min
    In the Northern Alberta community of Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, a father teaches his child how to create a caribou drum. In Heartbeat of a Nation, a short documentary by Eric Janvier, cultural reclamation and traditional knowledge are celebrated and passed down from one generation to the next, inspiring renewed hope for the future.
  • Honour of the Crown
    Honour of the Crown
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    Tom Radford 2001 47 min
    François Paulette has devoted more than 25 years of his life to resolving a battle that is more than a century old. Senior negotiator for the Smith's Landing First Nation, Paulette is determined to see the Canadian government honour promises made to the Thebatthi (Chipewyan) people in an 1899 treaty. Shot in northern Alberta and Ottawa, Honour of the Crown is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the turbulent final years of this fight.

    Plunged into seemingly endless negotiations, Paulette and his brother, Chief Jerry Paulette, struggle to reclaim nine tracts of land and $33 million in compensation. Featuring interviews with tribal, provincial and federal government representatives, this documentary provides a rare glimpse into one community's success in settling a 100-year-old treaty obligation of the Crown.
  • Kainayssini Imanistaisiwa: The People Go On
    Kainayssini Imanistaisiwa: The People Go On
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    Loretta Todd 2003 1 h 9 min
    In this feature-length documentary, filmmaker Loretta Sarah Todd takes viewers on a visually lush journey, exploring the significance of land, memory, and knowledge to the Kainai Blood Nation of Southern Alberta.

    The catalyst for this expressionistic journey is the return of belongings of the Kainai, collected by Europeans during colonial times and kept in distant museums. As the community's elders examine the objects and share stories first-hand, they reveal how the rich threads of Kainai life thrive from one generation to the next.
  • Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
    Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
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    Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers 2021 2 h 4 min
    Follow filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as she creates an intimate portrait of her community and the impacts of the substance use and overdose epidemic. Witness the change brought by community members with substance-use disorder, first responders and medical professionals as they strive for harm reduction in the Kainai First Nation.
  • The Longer Trail
    The Longer Trail
    Fergus McDonell 1956 30 min
    A story about a young Indigenous man from a reserve near Calgary and the problems he faces when he finds himself thrust into the world of the white man. Joe Lonecloud contracts tuberculosis and is taken to the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital in Edmonton. There he learns that he will never be able to return to the vigorous activity of the outdoors. In learning a trade and getting a job he encounters prejudice, which makes his adjustment all the more difficult.
  • Like the Trees
    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
    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.

  • Poplar River
    Poplar River
    Kevin Settee 2021 10 min
    This episode explores the special connection that Poplar River First Nation has to the lands and waters surrounding their community. Poplar River community members Sophia Rabliauskas and Clint Bittern share their perspectives on the importance and intergenerational responsibility of protecting the lands and waters in their territory for generations to come.
  • Fisher River
    Fisher River
    Kevin Settee 2021 15 min
    This episode narrows in on stories of generosity and perseverance in Fisher River Cree Nation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stories include the purchase and distribution of fish on a community and intra-community level, as well as stories of mothers who experienced unique challenges of their own while continuing to provide support and care to their families and communities.
  • Mistress Madeleine
    Mistress Madeleine
    Aaron Kim Johnston 1986 57 min
    Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.
  • The Moccasin Game
    The Moccasin Game
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    Frank Corcoran 1983 13 min
    This film looks at the ritual, tradition and legend of the moccasin game, an ancient and popular form of gambling said to have originated with the Sioux. A tournament held at the Sioux Valley Reservation near Brandon, Manitoba, brings together Sioux from both Canada and the United States to compete for high stakes in what is believed to be the oldest sleight-of-hand game in the world.
  • Man Who Chooses the Bush
    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.
  • Northern Fisherman
    Northern Fisherman
    Martin Defalco 1966 23 min
    This short film is an exposé on the style of fishing done by Indigenous fishermen in the Prairie provinces. The commentary is offered by a fisherman as he goes about his business. He recalls his boyhood when the men of his band freighted by canoe for the Hudson's Bay Company. He also speaks of education, of sickness and health, of family, of poverty, of the pleasures of a Saturday night dance, and he demonstrates the tricks of his own trade - when to set a net, how to handle fish, and what it all costs in money, time, equipment and skill. Commercial fishermen may learn effective measures for protecting the freshness and attractiveness of freshwater catches, while general audiences will enjoy a telling view of Indigenous life and enterprise.
  • nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up
    nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up
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    Tasha Hubbard 2019 1 h 38 min
    On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.
  • nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Cree Version)
    nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Cree Version)
    2019 1 h 38 min
    ohpahowi-pīsimohk kēkā-mitātaht ēhakimiht, nēhiyāsis ēhisiyihkāsot Colten Boushie ēkīnipahiht ēpāskisoht nāway ostikwānihk ēkīsipihtokwēpayicik Gerald Stanley otaskīm wiya asci owīcēwākana. owiyasiwēwak kāwīyasiwātahkik ēwako itwēwak namoya ēmāyinikēt Stanley pikwihtē askiy pēhtācikātēw, kakwēcihikēmonāniwiw iyikohk pakwāsiwēwin ēhitakohk anita kanāta wiyasiwēwinihk ēkwa Colten opēyakohēmāwa ōta askiy ēkwa misiwihtē askiy nīpawistamwak kwayask kapaminikawiyak wiyasiwēwinihk isi. kwayask nansihkāc atoskātam Tasha Hubbard, nīpawistamāsowin: We Will Stand Up ita ēhācimot kākīhotiniht, pēhci-nāway ēwako ōma opaminikēwin ōta kāpaskwāk, ēkwa tān’si ōte nīkān kēsi miyopimātisicik iyiniwawāsisak ōta ēnehiyawāstēk.

    māyitōtamowin wāpahcikātēw ōta cikāscēpayis. kwēyāci kiwihtamākawin ēwako pāmayēs kakanawāpahtaman ōma.

  • nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (52 minutes)
    nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (52 minutes)
    Tasha Hubbard 2019 52 min
    On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.
  • Nonoonse Anishinabe Ishichekewin Ka Kanawentank
    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 Maternal Home
    Our Maternal Home
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    Janine Windolph 2023 27 min
    Filmmaker and educator Janine Windolph ventures from Saskatchewan to Quebec with her two teens and younger sister, tracing their familial origins to the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi. Against the scenic backdrop of these Traditional Lands, Elders offer newfound interdependence and hands-on learning, transforming this humble visit into a sensory-filled expression of reclamation and resilience. Our Maternal Home lovingly establishes a heart-centred form of resistance to confront and heal from the generational impacts of cultural disconnection, making space for what comes next.
  • A Pinto for the Prince
    A Pinto for the Prince
    Colin Low  &  John Spotton 1979 16 min
    In 1977, Prince Charles was inducted as honorary chief of the Káínaa on their reserve in southwestern Alberta. The ceremony, conducted in the great Circle of the Sun Dance, commemorated the centennial anniversary of the original signing of Treaty 7 by Queen Victoria.
  • PowWow at Duck Lake
    PowWow at Duck Lake
    1967 14 min
    This powerful short documentary showing Indigenous youth resistance and emerging voices that will continue to define the landscape of Indigenous cultural and political activism for the next generation. Members of the National Youth Council, including Duke Redbird and Harold Cardinal, have a powerful exchange with a hostile white priest about the failures of the education system in relation to Indigenous people. The group tackles issues including segregated residential schools, the denial of citizenship rights, loss of language, and mass incarceration, many of which persist or continue to be stumbling blocks in the relationship between Indigenous people and the Government of Canada today.
  • Paul Kane Goes West
    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.
  • Places Not Our Own
    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.
  • The People at Dipper
    The People at Dipper
    Richard Gilbert  &  Jack Ofield 1966 18 min
    This short documentary from 1966 shows life in the Chipewyan community on a reserve in Northern Saskatchewan, where new ways of living don’t conflict with traditional activities. You’ll meet Moise MacIntyre, who is satisfied living along the lake with its fish and the game in the nearby woods, despite having the opportunity to leave. Free from the burden of having to succeed in the traditional sense of financial earnings, these people have created a sense of community that more than makes up for what they may otherwise lack.
  • Poundmaker's Lodge: A Healing Place
    Poundmaker's Lodge: A Healing Place
    Alanis Obomsawin 1987 29 min
    Just north of the City of Edmonton lies Poundmaker’s Lodge, an addiction and mental-health facility specializing in treatment for Indigenous people. Founded in 1973 and still operational today, the Lodge’s programs and services are Indigenous-run and based in culturally appropriate recovery and healing techniques. Framing the short documentary with the words of the great Plains Cree Chief Pîhtokahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker), Alanis Obomsawin presents a frank examination of the root causes of substance abuse in Indigenous communities and how the absence of love and support – exacerbated by the impacts of colonialism and racism – created a legacy of alcoholism for some individuals.
  • Rice Harvest
    Rice Harvest
    Norma Bailey  &  Bob Lower 1980 11 min
    This short documentary explores how the First Nations staple of wild rice is exported as a luxury food thanks in part to bush pilots. Follow the families of the Pauingassi band as they comb the reedy shores with brooms, paddles and baskets for manomim (wild rice).
  • Riel Country
    Riel Country
    Martin Duckworth 1996 49 min
    This documentary from Martin Duckworth features young adults from two distinct Winnipeg neighbourhoods on either side of the Red River who struggle to overcome geographical and cultural barriers. High school students from the predominantly Indigenous North End and their peers from the Francophone district of St. Boniface work together to produce a play on the origins of the Métis.

    Their collaboration raises questions about how these youths foresee their role and place within their respective communities and how these minority communities co-exist with the predominant culture. The film also tackles issues of intolerance, racism and discrimination.
  • Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child
    Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child
    Alanis Obomsawin 1986 29 min
    Richard Cardinal died by his own hand at the age of 17, having spent most of his life in a string of foster homes and shelters across Alberta. In this short documentary, Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin weaves excerpts from Richard’s diary into a powerful tribute to his short life. Released in 1984—decades before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—the film exposed the systemic neglect and mistreatment of Indigenous children in Canada’s child welfare system. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 1986 American Indian Film Festival, the film screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2008 as part of an Obomsawin retrospective, and continues to be shown around the world.
  • Round Up
    Round Up
    Narcisse Blood 2010 18 min
    This short film traces Pete Standing Alone's personal journey from cultural alienation to pride and belonging. As a spiritual elder, teacher, and community leader of the Kainai Nation of Southern Alberta, Pete works with youth to repair the cultural and spiritual destruction wrought by residential schools. At age 81, he has come full-circle in his dedication to preserving the traditional ways of his people.
  • The Red Dress
    The Red Dress
    Michael Scott 1978 27 min
    Renowned Métis author and screenwriter Maria Campbell explores themes of cultural identity, sexual assault and the familial impact of colonialism in The Red Dress, echoing the themes of her seminal memoir, Halfbreed.

    Kelly is a Métis man without treaty or hunting rights, struggling to sustain his traditional life. His daughter Theresa longs for a red dress from France that she believes will give her power and strength, as the bear claw once did for her great-grandfather Muskwa. When Theresa escapes an assault and Kelly turns his back on his daughter, he realizes that he must reconnect with his culture in order to make things right. Today, the red dress is a powerful symbol recognizing over 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.
  • Starblanket
    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.
  • Some Natives of Churchill
    Some Natives of Churchill
    Cynthia Scott 1973 27 min
    This short documentary zooms in on Churchill, Manitoba, on the western curve of Hudson Bay. The town boomed for a while after it became the railhead seaport for the shipment of Prairie grain. It also changed the way of life of the First Nations and Inuit population. "Four levels of government," says one, "and the town's biggest industry is the liquor store." In this film, local inhabitants say what they think of the changes and why they decided to stay when others moved on.

    Please note that this is an archival film that makes use of the word “Eskimo,” an outdated and offensive term. While the origin of the word is a matter of some contention, it is no longer used in Canada. The term was formally rejected by the Inuit Circumpolar Council in 1980 and has subsequently not been in use at the NFB for decades. This film is therefore a time-capsule of a bygone era, presented in its original version. The NFB apologizes for the offence caused.
  • Standing Buffalo
    Standing Buffalo
    Joan Henson 1968 23 min
    This short film from the late 1960s depicts a rug-making cooperative organized by the Sioux women of the Standing Buffalo Reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley of southern Saskatchewan. The members of this band are descended from a tribe that migrated from Minnesota during armed clashes over a hundred years ago. The Sioux, noted for their distinctive, colourful designs, show off their handicraft in great detail.
  • Standing Alone
    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.
  • This Riel Business
    This Riel Business
    Ian McLaren 1974 27 min
    This documentary short is a cinematic recording of Tales from a Prairie Drifter, a stage comedy about the North-West Resistance during the opening of the Canadian West. Highlighting the roles of Louis Riel, the Resistance leader, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and General Middleton, who was sent to quell the uprising, the play defines the First nations and Métis cause more succinctly than many history books. Here, the play is performed by the Regina Globe Theatre before an Indigineous audience of First Nations and Métis, whose reactions are recorded.
  • Two Worlds Colliding
    Two Worlds Colliding
    Tasha Hubbard 2004 49 min
    This documentary is an inquiry into what came to be known as Saskatoon's infamous "freezing deaths," and the schism between a fearful, mistrustful Indigenous community and a police force harbouring a harrowing secret.

    One frigid night in January 2000 Darrell Night, an Indigenous man was dumped by two police officers in -20° C temperatures in a barren field on the city outskirts. He survives the ordeal but is stunned to hear that the frozen body of another Indigenous man was discovered in the same area. Days later, another victim, also Native, is found. When Night comes forward with his story, he sets into motion a chain of events: a major RCMP investigation into several suspicious deaths, the conviction of the two constables who abandoned him and the reopening of an old case, leading to a judicial inquiry.
  • To Wake Up the Nakota Language
    To Wake Up the Nakota Language
    Louise BigEagle 2017 6 min
    “When you don’t know your language or your culture, you don’t know who you are,” says 69-year-old Armand McArthur, one of the last fluent Nakota speakers in Pheasant Rump First Nation, Treaty 4 territory, in southern Saskatchewan. Through the wisdom of his words, Armand is committed to revitalizing his language and culture for his community and future generations.
  • To Wake Up the Nakota Language (Nakota Version)
    To Wake Up the Nakota Language (Nakota Version)
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    2017 6 min
    “When you don’t know your language or your culture, you don’t know who you are,” says 69-year-old Armand McArthur, one of the last fluent Nakota speakers in Pheasant Rump First Nation, Treaty 4 territory, in southern Saskatchewan. Through the wisdom of his words, Armand is committed to revitalizing his language and culture for his community and future generations.
  • Van's Camp
    Van's Camp
    Les Rose  &  Donald Brittain 1974 27 min
    Fishermen fly in from the concrete jungles of New York and Chicago to Lac La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan for "the best freshwater fishing in the world." In a few days they want to catch the biggest and the most. Five or six plane-loads of fishermen arrive every day during the peak season, all with this same ambition. Indigenous guides, on the receiving end of the pressure, feel they have to go on strike occasionally. Van Bliss, the bluff and affable host of the camp, is caught in the middle of this head-on meeting between two vastly different cultures.