CapU Library has recently acquired these films with indigenous themes and stories, some by indigenous filmmakers*.
Cesna7em, the city before the city
2017 Dir: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers*
Documentary; trailer
Watch Online
“Commemorates the resolution of a dramatic and compelling moment in the history of this place now known as metro Vancouver, British Columbia. In late 2011, the Musqueam First Nation learned that a 108-unit condo development was being planned at one of their ancestral village sites without prior consultation with the nation.”
Maliglutit = Searchers
2017 Dir: Zacharias Kunuk*, Natar Ungalaaq*
Feature Film; In Inuktitut with English subtitles; trailer
Watch Online
On the shelves at: PN1997.2 .M363 2017 (1st floor Media)
Nunavut, circa 1913. Kuanana returns from a caribou hunt to discover his wife and daughter kidnapped, and the rest of his family slaughtered. His father’s spirit helper, the loon Kallulik, sets him on course to overturn fate and reunite his family.
Sgaawaay K’uuna = Edge of the knife
2018 Dir: Gwaai Edenshaw* & Helen Haig-Brown*
Feature Film; In Haida with English subtitles; trailer
Watch Online
“Haida Gwaii, 1800’s. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid – the Wildman. When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Meanwhile, Kwa wrestles with his deepest desire – revenge”
One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
2019 Dir: Zacharias Kunuk*
Feature Film; In Inuktitut with English subtitles; trailer
Watch Online
“In Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When the white man known as Boss arrives at Piugattuk’s hunting camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change.”
Koneline: Our Land Beautiful
2015 Dir: Nettie Wild
Documentary; trailer
Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award, Hot Docs 2016
Watch Online
“…a sensual, cinematic celebration of northwestern British Columbia, and all the dreamers who move across it. Some hunt on the land. Some mine it. They all love it. Set deep in the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, Konelïne captures beauty and complexity as one of Canada’s vast wildernesses undergoes irrevocable change.”
Blockade
2007 Dir: Nettie Wild
Documentary; trailer
Watch Online
On the shelves at: E99.K55 B556 2007 (1st floor Media)
“For most of us, Native land claims and logging issues fuel political and moral debates. To the people of the Gitksan reserve of Gitwangak and the white village of Kitwanga, these are issues worth fighting for.”
The Anthropologist
2015 Dir: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger
Documentary; trailer
Watch Online
“At the core of The Anthropologist are the parallel stories of two women: Margaret Mead, who popularized cultural anthropology in America; and Susie Crate, an environmental anthropologist currently studying the impact of climate change. Uniquely revealed from their daughters’ perspectives, Mead and Crate demonstrate a fascination with how societies are forced to negotiate the disruption of their traditional ways of life, whether through encounters with the outside world or the unprecedented change wrought by melting permafrost, receding glaciers and rising tides.”
The Linguists
2007 Dir: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger
Documentary; trailer
Watch Online
“Joins David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India and Bolivia, David and Greg’s resolve is tested by the very forces stifling languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. The scientists must overcome their own fears and preconceived notions to draw speakers from decades of silence. Their journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at stake.”
New streaming indigenous films are now available at NFB.ca.
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