Being Prepared

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.

An adventurous young boy and his determined mother share a passion for Inuit drum dancing in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Evan’s Drum is a joyful visit to a family’s loving home, and an uplifting story of cultural pride. After generations of silence, the rhythm of the traditional Inuit drum has returned to Labrador, and seven-year-old Evan is part of the new generation that will keep its heartbeat strong.

Also available in Inuktitut!

Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradition. Every January 6th from the dark of the Nunatsiavut night, the Nalujuit appear on the sea ice. They walk on two legs, yet their faces are animalistic, skeletal, and otherworldly. Snow crunches underfoot as they approach their destination: the Inuit community of Nain.

Despite the frights, Nalujuk Night is a beloved annual event, showing that sometimes it can be fun to be scared. Rarely witnessed outside of Nunatsiavut, this annual event is an exciting chance for Inuit, young and old, to prove their courage and come together as a community to celebrate culture and tradition.

Inuk filmmaker Jennie Williams brings audiences directly into the action in this bone-chilling black and white short documentary about a winter night like no other.

This short documentary studies life in the village of Kangirsujuaq, Nunavik. In this community on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, children’s laughter fills the streets while the old people ponder the passage of time. They are nomads of the wide-open spaces who are trying to get used to the strange feeling of staying put. While the teenagers lap up Southern culture and play golf on the tundra to kill time, the Elders are slowly dying, as their entire culture seems to fade away.

Elisapie Isaac, a filmmaker born in Nunavik, decides to return to her roots on this breathtaking land. To bridge the growing gap between the young and the old, she speaks to her grandfather, now deceased, and confides in him her hopes and fears. Grappling with isolation, family relationships, resource extraction, land-based knowledges, the influence of Southern culture and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Inuit ways of life, Elisapie Isaac offers a nuanced portrait of the North.

This film shares the story of Camp Morningstar, a sacred camp established on the east side of Lake Winnipeg that was erected in response to the proposal of a silica sand mine. The film explores Camp Morningstar’s historical and spiritual connections to territory, the role of ceremony and spirituality, and the power of collective action.

The Lake Winnipeg Project is a four-part documentary series that calls attention to stories of ingenuity and resilience in four diverse communities surrounding Lake Winnipeg, at a time when many external forces are imposing change. Anishinaabe/Cree director Kevin Settee takes an “own-voices” approach to storytelling that gives Lake Winnipeg communities and peoples the opportunity to tell their own stories and speak to the challenges and successes they experience.

Alanis Obomsawin's 52^nd film tells the story of how the life of Jordan River Anderson initiated a battle for the right of First Nations and Inuit children to receive the same standard of social, health and educational services as the rest of the Canadian population.

Also available on the Alanis Obomsawin, A Legacy DVD box set

This film 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.

The Lake Winnipeg Project is a four-part documentary series that calls attention to stories of ingenuity and resilience in four diverse communities surrounding Lake Winnipeg, at a time when many external forces are imposing change. Anishinaabe/Cree director Kevin Settee takes an “own-voices” approach to storytelling that gives Lake Winnipeg communities and peoples the opportunity to tell their own stories and speak to the challenges and successes they experience.

This short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which exists now only in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember it vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her and her younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled and left the government-manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.

This film 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.

The Lake Winnipeg Project is a four-part documentary series that calls attention to stories of ingenuity and resilience in four diverse communities surrounding Lake Winnipeg, at a time when many external forces are imposing change. Anishinaabe/Cree director Kevin Settee takes an “own-voices” approach to storytelling that gives Lake Winnipeg communities and peoples the opportunity to tell their own stories and speak to the challenges and successes they experience.

This film tells the story of the Whiteways of Matheson Island, who for generations have depended on commercial fishing as a means of survival and livelihood. The Whiteways share their devotion to their fishing lifestyle and the fulfillment and freedom it provides, as well as various challenges that arise due to factors such as health, government policy and the threatened future of the fishing industry.

The Lake Winnipeg Project is a four-part documentary series that calls attention to stories of ingenuity and resilience in four diverse communities surrounding Lake Winnipeg, at a time when many external forces are imposing change. Anishinaabe/Cree director Kevin Settee takes an “own-voices” approach to storytelling that gives Lake Winnipeg communities and peoples the opportunity to tell their own stories and speak to the challenges and successes they experience.

In this feature-length documentary, 8 Inuit teens with cameras offer a vibrant and contemporary view of life in Canada’s North. They also use their newly acquired film skills to confront a broad range of issues, from the widening communication gap between youth and their elders to the loss of their peers to suicide.