Alanis Obomsawin
Centuries of Resistance
September 24 to 27, 2025
Alanis Obomsawin is one of Canada's first and most influential indigenous filmmakers. As a director, singer, and activist from the Abenaki Nation, she has left her mark on documentary storytelling for over five decades – with an unmistakable voice which uncompromisingly advocates for the rights and self-determination of indigenous communities. She considers film a political tool and means of resistance against colonial narratives, distortions by the media, and the structural marginalization of indigenous perspectives. The stories, struggles, and hopes of Indigenous people are key to her works – told from an authentic, insider perspective. She has consistently resisted the dominance of western viewpoints and created spaces in which voices that are all too often left out or falsified find attentive ears. Her films are living chronicles of resistance: They preserve oral traditions and document the ongoing struggle against colonial violence, state repression, and the loss of land and cultural identity. Obomsawin combines indigenous storytelling traditions with interviews, music, drawings, and archival footage into a powerful tool of resistance. She uses the medium of film as a political intervention that renders visible social injustices and the continuing colonization of indigenous life. Her works are indispensable archives of indigenous memory and formulate a powerful call to the present: for recognition, justice, and self-determination. (Michaela Grill / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In collaboration with What's Up Vienna! What's Up Montréal!
Alanis Obomsawin is one of Canada's first and most influential indigenous filmmakers. As a director, singer, and activist from the Abenaki Nation, she has left her mark on documentary storytelling for over five decades – with an unmistakable voice which uncompromisingly advocates for the rights and self-determination of indigenous communities. She considers film a political tool and means of resistance against colonial narratives, distortions by the media, and the structural marginalization of indigenous perspectives. The stories, struggles, and hopes of Indigenous people are key to her works – told from an authentic, insider perspective. She has consistently resisted the dominance of western viewpoints and created spaces in which voices that are all too often left out or falsified find attentive ears. Her films are living chronicles of resistance: They preserve oral traditions and document the ongoing struggle against colonial violence, state repression, and the loss of land and cultural identity. Obomsawin combines indigenous storytelling traditions with interviews, music, drawings, and archival footage into a powerful tool of resistance. She uses the medium of film as a political intervention that renders visible social injustices and the continuing colonization of indigenous life. Her works are indispensable archives of indigenous memory and formulate a powerful call to the present: for recognition, justice, and self-determination. (Michaela Grill / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In collaboration with What's Up Vienna! What's Up Montréal!
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