Ka Unian Uass (L'enfant disparu)

A legend about a young boy’s quest for a friend who has disappeared. Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.

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 short film is inspired by a stormy same-sex relationship in the Manawan community of the Atikamekw Nation, which led to a suicide.

Richard Cardinal died by his own hand at the age of 17, having spent most of his life in a string of foster homes and shelters across Alberta. In this short documentary, Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin weaves excerpts from Richard’s diary into a powerful tribute to his short life. Released in 1984—decades before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—the film exposed the systemic neglect and mistreatment of Indigenous children in Canada’s child welfare system. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 1986 American Indian Film Festival, the film screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2008 as part of an Obomsawin retrospective, and continues to be shown around the world.

Released in 1968 and often referred to as Canada’s first music video, The Ballad of Crowfoot was directed by Willie Dunn, a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer and activist who was part of the historic Indian Film Crew, the first all-Indigenous production unit at the NFB. The film is a powerful look at colonial betrayals, told through a striking montage of archival images and a ballad composed by Dunn himself about the legendary 19th-century Siksika (Blackfoot) chief who negotiated Treaty 7 on behalf of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The IFC’s inaugural release, Crowfoot was the first Indigenous-directed film to be made at the NFB.

Follow the Eagle is a short film that reminds us of the importance of our elders, especially in the inner city. It focuses on the Elders-in-Training project, created to help next-generation Elders take on their role. Slo-Pitch introduces us to Brian Arrance, an HIV-positive Cree man. Brian introduces us to the Downtown Eastside Slo-Pitch League, which provides family-oriented recreation in the heart of the city and shares how he's found fun and support in the League. These two short documentaries were produced as part of program aimed at providing Indigenous people with the opportunity, and skills, to tell their stories.

This feature-length documentary chronicles the Sundance ceremony brought to Eastern Canada by William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation of the Mi'kmaq. Nevin learned from Elder Keith Chiefmoon of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Under the July sky, participants in the Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. Then they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. This event marks a transmission of culture and a link to the warrior traditions of the past.

In her first feature-length documentary, released in 1977, Alanis Obomsawin honours the central place of women and mothers within Indigenous cultures. An album of Indigenous womanhood, the film portrays proud matriarchal cultures that for centuries have been pressured to adopt the standards and customs of the dominant society. Tracing the cycle of Indigenous women’s lives from birth to childhood, puberty, young adulthood, maturity and old age, the film reveals how Indigenous women have fought to regain a sense of equality, instilled cultural pride in their children and passed on their stories and language to new generations.

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

As the global pandemic reaches into the Arctic Archipelago, Inuk filmmaker Carol Kunnuk documents how unfamiliar new protocols affect her family and community. Her vividly specific soundtrack juxtaposes snippets from local radio broadcasts, issuing health advisories in both Inuktitut and English, with the sweet sounds of children at play. A richly detailed and tender account of disruption and adjustment.

A personal film in which Mariana Niquay-Ottawa tries to reconnect with her mother.

Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile

This feature-length documentary explores the diabetes epidemic within Indigenous communities in Canada. Ojibway filmmaker Brion Whitford lives with the pain of advanced diabetes, but shunned traditional Indigenous medicine and healing practices. But as his health deteriorated, he had a change of heart. Join Brion as he connects with his culture, comes to grips with his own mortality, and tries to re-establish balance in his life.