Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework
Edited by Richard William Hill, Hila Peleg, HKW
Prestel, 2022
In English
Hardcover, 272 pages, 25 x 31 cm, 250 color illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-7913-7923-4
Price: 36 €
Available at bookstores, mail order buying / postal shopping via the Webshop
A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most respected artists, Alanis Obomsawin is an activist filmmaker and producer at the National Film Board of Canada, where she has worked since 1967. Her documentary cinema is deeply committed to the social justice of Indigenous Peoples, especially the rights of children. This book reflects on Obomsawin’s lifework by bringing together rigorous essayistic investigations with personal anecdote, conversation and storytelling. It includes an interview with the artist, her own writing and etchings, archival material and an array of film stills and photographs.
Authors include Karrmen Crey, Richard Fung, Monika Kin Gagnon, Richard William Hill, Jessica L. Horton, Ursula Johnson, Alexandra Juhasz, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Doreen Manuel, Joseph Naytowhow, Monique Nolett-Ille, Alanis Obomsawin, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Jason Ryle, Lisa Steele, Loretta Todd, Robert Verrall and Jesse Wente.
Table of contents:
Preface
Introduction: The Children Have to Hear Another Story
Richard William Hill, Hila Peleg
Christmas at Moose Factory
Jesse Wente
Mother of Many Children
Doreen Manuel
In Situ: Indigenous Media Landscapes in Canada
Karrmen Crey
The Gift of Time: Listening in Amisk
Alexandra Juhasz
What Resurgence Looked Like
Richard William Hill, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Joseph Naytowhow
Incident at Restigouche, Is the Crown at War with Us?, Our Nationhood
Ursula Johnson
Salmon Stills in Motion: The Local as Colonial Critique in the Films of Alanis Obomsawin
Elizabeth A. Povinelli
Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child
Loretta Todd
Poundmaker’s Lodge: A Healing Place
Richard Fung
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Robert Verrall
Indian Roadblocks: Five Things That Happened from 1973 to 1990
Richard William Hill
Walker, Sigwan, When All the Leaves Are Gone
Lisa Steele
Listening, Dreaming, Fabricating
Jessica L. Horton
Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises
Monique Nolett-Ille
The People of the Kattawapiskak River, Hi-Ho Mistahey!, Trick or Treaty?, We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice, Our People Will Be Healed, Walking Is Medicine, Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger
Jason Ryle
“Before I made films, I was singing”
Alanis Obomsawin, Monika Kin Gagnon
Biography
Filmography
Contributors’ Biographies
Acknowledgements
What Drives Me
Alanis Obomsawin
