August 2004
 Alanis
Obomsawin (Abenaki) is one of Canada's most distinguished
documentary filmmakers and an eloquent advocate for aboriginal
filmmaking. She was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1983
and received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts
in 2001. Obomsawin began her career as a singer, writer, and storyteller
before she began making her own films in 1967 with Christmas
at Moose Factory. She has directed more than 20 documentaries
on issues affecting aboriginal people of Canada, including films
about the resistance of the Mohawk community at Oka, the M'ikmaq
people at Listiguj, and social issues affecting aboriginal children.
Her works have been screened widely, and she has recently been
honored with film retrospectives at major festivals, including
the 2003 Margaret Mead Film Festival and the 2004 IMAGeNative
Film Festival. She sits on the board of directors for the Aboriginal
Peoples Television Network and the Public Broadcasting Association
of Quebec, and belongs to the Advisory Committee on Multiculturalism
and Issues of Equity at Concordia University. Obomsawin has received
honorary doctorates from Carleton University, Concordia University,
and York University. She grew up speaking Abenaki on the Odanak
Reserve and in Trois Rivières in Quebec.
"The reason I make films is to give a voice to our people,
a place to express themselves in dignity, to expose injustices
and tell our history."
Screened by NMAI
Image credit:
Alanis Obomsawin -courtesy of the filmmaker; Alanis Obomsawin
- Photograph by Jeff Bear. © 2007 Storytellers In Motion.
All right reserved.
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