Film Categories: Indigenous

  • The Flower and The Flood

    Following the seasonal cycle of a saffron farm based in the Fraser Valley, the film explores unmechanized labor through harvesting the delicate crocus stamen by hand. After an atmospheric river decimates the flourishing saffron crop in 2021, the flood waters temporarily return Semá:th Xó:tsa to the valley more than a century after its forced draining. The film traces the interconnected history of this sacred lake with the rebuilding of the saffron crop; cultivating community and the most expensive spice in the world. Collaborating with the saffron crocus and other plants through eco-processing and analogue processes, the family garden offers us…

  • Let’s Rap

    “Women, speak your mind!” says one of the rappers in this collage of women of all ages and races who use the directness and power of rap music to express their views. These women, who rap in their own words about their own lives and beliefs present us with a lively, musical and often comical look at key issues facing women today. Let’s Rap! brims with energy, from its dynamic editing, witty set designs and colourful costumes right down to the pulsating beat which underlies its enthusiastic performances. Let by the powerful Montreal rap artist Freaky D, one of Quebec’s…

  • Nimer (Family)

    Nimer—meaning “family” in the Even language—follows the life of a nomadic family in Yakutia as they navigate the delicate balance between tradition and modernity. Against the backdrop of harsh northern landscapes, the film captures their resilience, the strength of ancestral bonds, and the challenges of sustaining a way of life under pressure from social and cultural change. At its heart is the mother, who embodies both continuity and adaptation, teaching her children along their seasonal migrations while preserving the customs passed down through generations. Offering an intimate portrayal of everyday survival, devotion, and hope, Nimer invites audiences into a world…

  • Private Flowers

    In 1832, a Canadian Infantryman was hanged for making love with another man. The victim’s rank was Private, and his name was Flowers. Commissioned by Toronto History Museums’ Artist Mentorship Showcase: Pride with Mentor Ashley Mckenzie-Barnes with additional support from the open space residency programme at the National Ballet, TD Bank, Pride Toronto and the Ontario Arts Council. Created as part of Awakening with Toronto History Museums Private Flowers is part of a series of art projects by Black, Indigenous and artists of colour, operating under the principles of anti-oppression, anti-colonialism and anti-racism and is part of the City’s efforts…

  • October Stranger

    “October Stranger” is a highly acclaimed drama about a young Ojibway Indian who must leave his youth behind on the reserve in Northern Ontario in order to pursue his writing career. It is a thoughful and gentle love story, full of fine poetry. Beautifully photographed on location near Sioux Lookout, it reveals modern life on the reserve with a rare depth and respect, as the old ways and the new come to terms with one another. It is the story of an artist finding his voice, and of a native gathering the courage to go “south” to the city.

  • Law Is in the Seed, The

    “The Law Is in the Seed” is a video of a poem by the same name written by Alex Jacobs, a Mohawk Indian poet from Akwesasne (New York State). The poem is about the Native American concept of democracy as contained in the Great Law, an oral document which originated with Deganawida, the Huron co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Great Law was the model for the United States Constitution. As Jacobs begins to recite the poem on camera, the video mixes to the faces of Mohawk children and women, their lips moving in and out of sync with Jacobs’…

  • Lac La Croix

    Native people young and old speak about land issues, the environment, and the culture and history of Lac La Croix Ojibway peoples of northwestern Ontario. The film examines issues such as the community ban on liquor, the fight against welfare dependency, and the effects of the media on young people. “Lac La Croix” was made with the full cooperation of the Lac La Croix community. In the film, many different people speak about their lives and their current political struggles. This is a film about a Native community fighting successfully for survival, blending the old and the new.

  • It Starts With a Whisper

    A celebration of the strength, wisdom, beauty and humour of Native women; of Native culture and people, surviving and thriving. “It Starts With a Whisper” was produced in the Six Nations/Brantford area, with an all-Native cast, and features locations on the Grand River which runs through the Six Nations Reserve. The film blends traditional Iroquois imagery, music and themes with motifs from contemporary, secular life. An original score and innovative visuals make “It Starts With a Whisper” a delight to watch, as well as a timely challenge to movie stereotypes of First Nations people. Eighteen-year-old Shanna Sabbath, who has grown…

  • Inquiry Film, The

    The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry (also known as the Berger Inquiry) was a precedent-shattering examination of Native rights and economic development in Canada’s North. The contentious issues brought out by the Inquiry are very much alive today as Southern Canada still seeks to exploit the resources of the North. “The Inquiry Film” documents and reveals the process of the Inquiry and humanizes a complex political and national issue. Awards: Best Documentary, Canadian Film Awards; Golden Athena Award (Best Feature Film)

  • Honey Moccasin

    The first of its kind in Canada made by an Aboriginal filmmaker, “Honey Moccasin” is set on the fictional Grand Pine Indian Reservation (aka “Reservation X”) and employs a hybrid pastiche of styles that depicts the rivalry between two bars, the Smoking Moccasin and the Inukshuk Cafe, the tale of closeted drag queen/powwow clothing thief Zachery John (illy merasty), and the travails of the crusading investigator/storyteller Honey Moccasin (Tantoo Cardinal). An irreverent parody of familiar narrative strategies, “Honey Moccasin” forges an oppositional aesthetic via its reappropriation of the conventions of melodrama, performance art, cable access, and a “whodunit” style to…