Alanis Obomsawin

A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most distinguished artists, Alanis Obomsawin has been a trailblazing champion of Indigenous storytelling and cinema over a legendary career that began at the NFB in 1967.

Companion of the Order of Canada and laureate of both the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, Ms. Obomsawin has received more than 50 lifetime and career accolades, as well as 19

honorary degrees. She has directed 66 films to date that have amassed over 50 honours, including 15 awards for her 1993 landmark feature documentary on the 1990 Oka Crisis, 

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.

Six years before Oka, Alanis was present with her camera during Quebec police raids on the

Restigouche Reserve to make Incident at Restigouche (1984), a film that she has said “encapsulated the idea of films being a form of social protest” and had a profound impact on her filmmaking practice.

Born in New Hampshire on Abenaki territory, Alanis was brought by her mother to live on the Odanak reserve northeast of Montreal at the age of six months. She first came to the attention of NFB producers Joe Koenig and Bob Verrall in 1966, when she was the subject of a film by Ron Kelly for CBC-TV’s Telescope series.

Also an acclaimed singer and visual artist, Alanis is the subject of an exhibition on her life

and work, The Children Have to Hear Another Story, which is touring Canadian cities.

“Much has been said and discussed about Alanis’s legacy, which, it’s vital to point out, is

still unfolding with every new film in her remarkable—and remarkably long—career as

a director, producer, writer, singer, artist and activist. She is many things to many people,

as all great leaders are. Her body of work is astonishing. With over 60 films already

complete and with more in various stages of development, Alanis Obomsawin is unlike most screen storytellers from any nation on Earth.”

– Jason Ryle, International Programmer, Indigenous Cinema, Toronto International Film Festival

Bio courtesy of Emily Carr University of Art + Design: https://www.ecuad.ca/