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Metis Peoples and Stories (Ages 12-14)

Metis Peoples and Stories (Ages 12-14)

This selection of films includes fiction, documentary, and shorts which use different approaches to form a picture of Metis life and culture in Canada.

Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.

Films in This Playlist Include
Places Not Our Own
How the Fiddle Flows
Women in the Shadows
Riel Country
Lake

  • Places Not Our Own
    1986|57 min

    Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this dramatic film set in 1929 depicts how Canada's West, home to generations of Métis, was taken over by the railroads and new settlers. As a result, the Métis became a forgotten people, forced to eke out a living as best they could. At the forefront is Rose, a woman determined to provide her children with a normal life and an education despite the odds. But due to their harsh circumstances, a devastating and traumatic event transpires instead.

  • How the Fiddle Flows
    2002|48 min

    It's high summer in southern Saskatchewan and a rollicking tune fills the night. Four master Metis fiddlers play to the tapping toes of a lively crowd.

    How the Fiddle Flows follows Canada's great rivers west along the fur-trading route of the early Europeans. The newcomers introduced the fiddle to the Aboriginal people they intermarried with along the way. A generation later, their mixed-blood offspring would blend European folk tunes with First Nations rhythms to create a rich and distinct musical tradition.

    From the Gaspé Peninsula, north to Hudson Bay and to the Prairies, How the Fiddle Flows reveals how a distinctive Metis identity and culture were shaped over time. Featuring soaring performances by some of Canada's best known fiddlers and step dancers and narrated by award-winning actress Tantoo Cardinal.

  • Women in the Shadows
    1991|55 min

    This intensely personal documentary follows Indigenous writer and filmmaker Christine Welsh as she embarks on an extraordinary physical and spiritual journey in search of her Métis foremothers. It is the story of one Métis woman's reconciliation with her past and her people--a coming to terms with loss and with the price that has been paid for assimilation, and a celebration of survival.

  • Riel Country
    1996|49 min

    This documentary from Martin Duckworth features young adults from two distinct Winnipeg neighbourhoods on either side of the Red River who struggle to overcome geographical and cultural barriers. High school students from the predominantly Indigenous North End and their peers from the Francophone district of St. Boniface work together to produce a play on the origins of the Métis.

    Their collaboration raises questions about how these youths foresee their role and place within their respective communities and how these minority communities co-exist with the predominant culture. The film also tackles issues of intolerance, racism and discrimination.

  • Lake

    Cree director Alexandra Lazarowich riffs off classic verité cinema to craft a contemporary portrait of Métis women net fishing in Northern Alberta.