"A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of the most important Indigenous filmmakers of all time, Alanis OBOMSAWIN was born in 1932 and grew up in the Odanak reserve, northeast of Montreal. She has made over 50 films during her almost-five-decade career. Also a singer, an artist, and an educator, she devotes her life to Indigenous activist movements, defending the rights of the First Nations people. In the 1960s, OBOMSAWIN was touring around North America, sharing Indigenous stories in the language of Abenaki as a singer. Since 1967, she has been working as a consultant of Indigenous cinema at the National Film Board of Canada. In 1971, her short Christmas at Moose Factory marks the directorial debut of this legendary Abenaki director. OBOMSAWIN’s films empower the characters and the subjects by letting them tell the stories in their own language. Her focus on the rights of Indigenous people, cultural heritage, and environmental consciousness makes her a passionate and productive filmmaker. Her works cover themes including cultural practices and oral histories of Indigenous people, human and non-human relationships, traditional territories, and unjust capitalist and colonialist constructs. She is often at the front line of social movements, recording the story of her people.
1971 Christmas at Moose Factory
1977 Mother of Many Children
1977 Amisk
1984 Incident at Restigouche
1986 Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child
1988 No Address
1993 Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
1995 My Name Is Kahentiiosta
2000 Rocks at Whiskey Trench
2002 Is the Crown At War With Us?
2003 Our Nationhood
2005 Sigwan
2006 Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises
2014 Trick or Treaty?
2016 We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice
2019 Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger
Conceptor, Director, Screenwriter, Producer: Alanis OBOMSAWIN
Executive Producer: Sally BOCHNER
Cinematographer: Philippe AMIGUET
Editor: Alison BURNS
Location Sound: Raymond MARCOUX
Sound Editor: Leopoldo GUTIERREZ
Foley Artist: Stéphane CADOTTE
Music: Francis GRANDMONT
Musician: Francis GRANDMONT, Jean-Félix MAILLOUX-DESJARDINS, Claude VENDETTE
Animator: Benoît CHAGNON
Traditional Chant: Ambroise OBOMSAWIN
Voice-over: Sandra LARONDE, Wiingushk-Kwe TEEKENS, Gary FARMER, Michelle ST-JOHN, Darrell DENNIS
Theatre Mask: Sylvie TRUDEL
Mask: Elaheh MOTTAHEDEH
Costume: Annie ALEXANDER
Moccasins: Carolyn COTE
Eric SEGUIN
National Film Board of Canada
E.Seguin@nfb.ca
1971 Christmas at Moose Factory
1977 Mother of Many Children
1977 Amisk
1984 Incident at Restigouche
1986 Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child
1988 No Address
1993 Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
1995 My Name Is Kahentiiosta
2000 Rocks at Whiskey Trench
2002 Is the Crown At War With Us?
2003 Our Nationhood
2005 Sigwan
2006 Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises
2014 Trick or Treaty?
2016 We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice
2019 Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger
Conceptor, Director, Screenwriter, Producer: Alanis OBOMSAWIN
Executive Producer: Sally BOCHNER
Cinematographer: Philippe AMIGUET
Editor: Alison BURNS
Location Sound: Raymond MARCOUX
Sound Editor: Leopoldo GUTIERREZ
Foley Artist: Stéphane CADOTTE
Music: Francis GRANDMONT
Musician: Francis GRANDMONT, Jean-Félix MAILLOUX-DESJARDINS, Claude VENDETTE
Animator: Benoît CHAGNON
Traditional Chant: Ambroise OBOMSAWIN
Voice-over: Sandra LARONDE, Wiingushk-Kwe TEEKENS, Gary FARMER, Michelle ST-JOHN, Darrell DENNIS
Theatre Mask: Sylvie TRUDEL
Mask: Elaheh MOTTAHEDEH
Costume: Annie ALEXANDER
Moccasins: Carolyn COTE
Eric SEGUIN
National Film Board of Canada
E.Seguin@nfb.ca
