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Indigenous Women (23)
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AugustaAnne Wheeler 1976 16 minThis 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. -
Basket - Lhk'wál'us (Salish Version)Alanis Obomsawin 1975 7 minA 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. -
BasketAlanis Obomsawin 1975 7 minA 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. -
Dream MagicKaterina Cizek 2008 6 minThis 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."
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Eskimo Artist: KenojuakJohn Feeney 1963 19 minThis documentary shows how an Inuit artist's drawings are transferred to stone, printed and sold. Kenojuak Ashevak became the first woman involved with the printmaking co-operative in Kinngait (formerly known as Cape Dorset). This film was nominated for the 1963 Documentary Short Subject Oscar®.
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First Stories - ati-wîcahsin (It's Getting Easier)Tessa Desnomie 2007 6 minIn 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.
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Generation MobilisationMélanie Kistabish , Eza Paventi , … 2008 10 minOne hundred years after signing Treaty 9 with the federal government, the Abitibiwinni of the Algonquin Nation are calling for respect for their lands, history, culture and rights.
Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short documentary was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile. -
Kwekànamad - The Wind Is ChangingCarlos Ferrand 1999 54 minAnnie Smith-St-Georges is an Algonquin mother and wife who led a largely uneventful life. Then tragedy struck in 1990, when her teenage son Yanik ended his life. Annie wanted to forget and yet to remember, to understand and yet to deny. Then one day she had a vision of a glass teepee ten storeys high, in Ottawa, to house a National Aboriginal Arts and Performance Centre. The building would be designed by the renowned architect Douglas Cardinal, in memory of her son and for all young Natives struggling to find meaning in life. We meet Annie and her husband eight years later, during the final year of their crusade for the glass teepee. A traditional habitat made from non-traditional material would successfully meld past and present. Annie wishes to give back to her people their ancestral pride and dignity. It's a time of hope. Annie now knows that, and she says it for anyone to hear: "Kwekànamad," the wind is changing. Some subtitles.
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Like the TreesKathleen Shannon 1974 14 minThis 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.
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Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and BackReaghan Tarbell 2008 56 min
Mohawk high steel workers have a special place in North American history. The iconic New York skyline - with its great monuments to modernity - is the fruit of their labour.
While the men were scraping the skies, the women had their feet firmly on the ground - sustaining a vibrant Mohawk community in the heart of Brooklyn.
Little Caughnawaga evokes the neighbourhood's heyday - from the 1920s through to the 60s - and salutes the spirited women who kept the culture alive.
The Brooklyn Mohawks were mostly from Kahnawake, a community long associated with the dangerous world of high steel. In 1907 the small town lost 33 men in the Quebec Bridge disaster, an event that still looms large in collective memory.
Moving back and forth between Brooklyn and Kahnawake, director Reaghan Tarbell crafts an affectionate portrait of Little Caughnawaga ad a heartfelt tribute to the cultural resilience of her people. -
LakeAlexandra Lazarowich 2019 5 min
Cree director Alexandra Lazarowich riffs off classic verité cinema to craft a contemporary portrait of Métis women net fishing in Northern Alberta.
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My Name Is KahentiiostaAlanis Obomsawin 1995 29 minThis short documentary by Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman arrested after the Oka Crisis' 78-day armed standoff in 1990. She was detained 4 days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government did not accept her Indigenous name.
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Martha of the NorthMarquise Lepage 2008 1 h 23 minIn the mid-1950s, lured by false promises of a better life, Inuit families were displaced by the Canadian government and left to their own devices in the Far North. In this icy desert realm, Martha Flaherty and her family lived through one of Canadian history’s most sombre and little-known episodes.
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Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian AgainCourtney Montour 2021 34 minMary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement.
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Martha of the North (Short Version)Marquise Lepage 2008 47 minMartha was only 5 when she and her parents were lured away from their Inuit village. Along with a handful of other families, they were moved to Canada’s most northerly island, Ellesmere, to ensure Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. They were told that game would be plentiful and life would be easy. Instead, they discovered that the islands of the Arctic are among the least hospitable to human life in the world. For years, they endured hunger and extreme cold. Deprived of the right to an education and a childhood, Martha had to help her family survive. Yet she proved as resilient as the other people from her community who appear in the film. Martha of the North is the story of a journey and a childhood spent in a new and unwelcoming land.
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Mary Two-Axe Earley: Skonkwehón:we á:re (Kanien’kéha Version)2021 34 minMary Two-Axe Earley: Skonkwehón:we Á:re kaká:raton ne Mary Two-Axe Earley akoká:ra, ísi’ nón: ne teiohseráhsen iakohskehnhà:’on taié:tahste’ tsi shakotikenhrón:nis konnonkwehón:we né:ne í:kare’ Kakoráhsera’ aoianerénhsera’ Indian Act nok tsi wa’ehsennowáhnha’ né: Canada’s women’s rights movement.
Né:ne iah nonwén:ton ónhka teiakotkáhthon kí:ken wateweièn:ton karahstánion nok kawennarahstánion wátston, Ienien’kehá:ka iekararáhstha’ Courtney Mountor teiotíhthare’ ne Ienien’kehá:ka iakonkwe’kénha né:ne iakohskehnhà’:on taié:tahste’ tsi shakotikenhrón:nis tsonathonwí:sen nok Kakoráhsera’ tsi nihotiianerenhserò:ten’ tsi ronte’niéntha’ ahonwanáhton’te’ nonkwehón:we. Nè:’e arihón:ni wahónhton’te’ ne onkwehón:we ahontatena’tónhkhwake’ ne konnonkwehón:we nok ronwatiien’okòn:’a tsi wahotíniake’ ne iah tehonnonkwehón:we.
Montour teiotíhthare’ Iehrhakón:ha iakorihwahskéhnhen Nellie Carlson, ne Mary akwáh ákta tsi ionátshi tánon’ iakotahsnié:nen tsi tionatáhsawe’ ne Indian Rights for Indian Women, nok áhsen nikahwatsiratátie’ tehonatátken ne Mary tsi iekhonnià:tha’ ne Kahnawà:ke, né: ká:ti’ ahshakotihsennakará:tate’ ní:kon iakoterihwakanonnì:’on tsi tiakotenenhratáhsawe’ aontahontén:rohwe’ akaia’takehnhahtsherénhawe’ aonsonteríhsi’ tsi rotirihón:ni ne tóhsa ahontatena’tónhkhwake’ onkwehón:we ne ioshentsheró:ton nihá:ti konnonkwehón:we nok ronwatiien’okòn:’a. -
Nonoonse Anishinabe Ishichekewin Ka Kanawentank1980 10 minWestern 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.)
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Our Dear SistersKathleen Shannon 1975 14 minAlanis 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.
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Puberty Part 1 - Kwaozán'tsut ti pál7a 1 (Salish Version)Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 minAn 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. -
Puberty - Part 1Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 minAn 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. -
Song of EskasoniBrian Guns 1993 28 minEskasoni 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.
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Six Miles DeepSara Roque 2009 43 minThis short documentary offers a portrait of a group of women who led their community, the largest reserve in Canada, Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, in an historic blockade to protect their land. On February 28, 2006, members of the Iroquois Confederacy blockaded a highway near Caledonia, Ontario to prevent a housing development on land that falls within their traditional territories. The ensuing confrontation made national headlines for months. Less well-known is the crucial role of the clan mothers of the community who set the rules for conduct. When the community's chiefs ask people to abandon the barricades, it is the clan mothers who overrule them, leading a cultural reawakening in their traditionally matriarchal community.
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Tantoo CardinalDarlene Naponse 2020 4 minA moving portrait of actress Tantoo Cardinal, travelling through time and across the many roles she’s played, capturing her strength and her impact—and how she shattered the glass ceiling and survived.
