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Indigenous Art (18)
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Bill ReidJack Long 1979 27 minBritish 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. -
The Beauty of My PeopleAlan Collins 1977 29 minThe 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.
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Bill Reid RemembersAlanis Obomsawin 2021 24 minBill 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.
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Cowboy and IndianDon Owen 1972 44 minThis documentary is a portrait of two friends: Robert Markle, who comes from a family of Mohawk steel workers, and Gordon Rayner, his longtime art associate. Both are Toronto artists and art teachers who also share an interest in jazz. Rayner plays the drums, Markle the electric piano. This film is a study of their lifestyle, their mutual interests and their friendship.
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The Colours of PrideHenning Jacobsen 1973 27 minAn 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.
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Haida CarverRichard Gilbert 1964 12 minOn Canada's Pacific coast this film finds a young Haida artist, Robert Davidson, shaping miniature totems from argillite, a jet-like stone. The film follows the artist to the island where he finds the stone, and then shows how he carves it in the manner of his grandfather, who taught him the craft.
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Hands of HistoryLoretta Todd 1994 51 minIn 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.
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Like Andrew QappikJane Churchill 2005 11 minThis short documentary is a portrait of Andrew Qappik, a world-renowned Inuit printmaker from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Originally inspired by images in the comic books he read as a child, Andrew now finds his subjects in the stories, traditions and day-to-day events of his world.
In I Can Make Art Like Andrew Qappik, he captivates his student audience by creating a soapstone relief print before their very eyes. Then it's the kids' turn. They explore Andrew's symbolic imagery - and their own - as they each create a self-portrait relief point. -
Kwa'nu'te': Micmac and Maliseet ArtistsCatherine Anne Martin & Kimberlee McTaggart 1991 41 minThis 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.
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Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit PhotographerCarol Geddes 1997 50 minThis 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."
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The Paradox of Norval MorrisseauDuke Redbird & Henning Jacobsen 1974 28 minIn 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.
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This Was the TimeEugene Boyko 1970 15 minWhen Masset, a Haida village on Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), held a potlatch, it seemed as if the past grandeur of the people had returned. This is a colourful recreation of Indigenous life that faded more than two generations ago when the great totems were toppled by the missionaries and the costly potlatch was forbidden by law. The film shows how one village lived again the old glory, with singing, dancing, feasting, and the raising of a towering totem as a lasting reminder of what once was.
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Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox PoleGil Cardinal 2003 1 h 10 minThis feature-length documentary traces the journey of the Haisla people to reclaim the G'psgolox totem pole that went missing from their British Columbia village in 1929. The fate of the 19th century traditional mortuary pole remained unknown for over 60 years until it was discovered in a Stockholm museum where it is considered state property by the Swedish government. Director Gil Cardinal combines interviews, striking imagery and rare footage of master carvers to raise questions about ownership and the meaning of Indigenous objects held in museums.
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Totem: Return and RenewalGil Cardinal 2007 23 minIn this follow-up to his 2003 film, Totem: the Return of the G'psgolox Pole, filmmaker Gil Cardinal documents the events of the final journey of the G'psgolox Pole as it returns home to Kitamaat and the Haisla people, from where it went missing in 1929.
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TotemsLaura Boulton 1944 11 minThis short film from 1944 presents the totem pole to a general audience, explaining its significance and how it fits into Indigenous culture. It was filmed in British Columbia, where these monuments, witnesses to an ancient and powerful culture, watch over us. This film is over 70 years old and should be viewed with an understanding that it is an uncensored historical document of its time.
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Woodland SpiritsDave Clement 2007 27 minIn this documentary short, two men paddle a canoe across a remote part of northern Lake Superior. Each stroke brings them closer to the culmination of an artistic and spiritual journey, one that begins with ancient rock paintings from their Anishinaabe ancestors.
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Yuxweluptun: Man of MasksDana Claxton 1998 21 minThis 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.
