Our People Will Be Healed is a 2017 Canadian documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin. The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. [1] The film explores the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre, an N-12 Frontier School Division school in Norway House, Manitoba where Cree students are taught about their own history and culture alongside the regular Manitoba school curriculum. [2] [3] [4]
Obomsawin previously filmed at the school during the production of We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice to document the story of Jordan River Anderson, a Cree child whose death became the basis of Jordan's Principle, a federal government commitment to funding services for Indigenous children. Impressed by the school's success in helping to develop strong, healthy children, she decided to tell its story in a standalone film. The title, Our People Will Be Healed is a quote from someone interviewed in the film, and Obomsawin has said she sees a new optimism for Canadian Indigenous people. [4]
In December, TIFF named the film to its annual Canada's Top Ten list of the ten best Canadian films. [5]
In 2021 the film was selected for inclusion in Celebrating Alanis, a retrospective program of Obomsawin's films at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. [6]
Alanis Obomsawin, is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is a 1993 feature-length documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, highlighting the events of the 1990 Oka Crisis. Obomsawin documents the events of The Siege of Kanehsatake over 78 days, capturing a rare perspective of an important turning point in Canadian history. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film won 18 Canadian and international awards, including the Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association and the CITY TV Award for Best Canadian Feature Film from the Toronto Festival of Festivals.
Tracey Penelope Tekahentakwa Deer is a First Nations (Mohawk) screenwriter, film director and newspaper publisher based in Kahnawake, Quebec. She has written and directed several award-winning documentaries for Rezolution Pictures, an Aboriginal-run film and television production company. In 2008, she was the first Mohawk woman to win a Gemini Award, for her documentary Club Native. Her TV series Mohawk Girls had five seasons from 2014 to 2017. She also founded her own production company for independent short work.
The Norway House Cree Nation is based at Norway House, Manitoba, which is on the Playgreen Lake section of the Nelson River system. The people are Swampy Cree from the Rocky Cree band government. They are in possession of a number of reserves, but population is centered at IR Norway House 17 (06392). There are over 8300 members living on-reserve with another 1900 plus members at various locations off-reserve. The 2016 Census reported an official population of 7,927 inhabitants at Norway House 17 up from 7,758 in 2011.
Hi-Ho Mistahey! is a 2013 National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin that profiles Shannen's Dream, an activist campaign first launched by Shannen Koostachin, a Cree teenager from Attawapiskat, to lobby for improved educational opportunities for First Nations youth.
Heather Young is a Canadian filmmaker based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Trick or Treaty? is a 2014 Canadian documentary feature film by Alanis Obomsawin about Treaty 9, a 1905 agreement in which First Nations peoples in northern Ontario surrendered their sovereign rights. The film is the first by an indigenous filmmaker to be selected to the Masters program at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is the 43rd film by Obomsawin for the National Film Board of Canada.
We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice is a 2016 Canadian documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin about the First Nations activist Cindy Blackstock and her court case against the federal government of Canada for underfunding social services to children living on First Nations reserves.
The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2017. There were fourteen programs, with the Vanguard and City to City programs both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down by 20% from the 2016 edition. Borg/McEnroe directed by Janus Metz Pedersen opened the festival.
Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger is a 2019 Canadian documentary film directed by Alanis Obomsawin. The film profiles Jordan River Anderson, a young boy from the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba whose permanent lifelong hospitalization with a rare genetic disorder caused a political fight between the provincial and federal governments over the cost of his medical care, resulting in the establishment of the new Jordan's Principle around equity of access to health and social services for First Nations children.
The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, the 45th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 10 to 21, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival took place primarily on an online streaming platform, although limited in-person screenings still took place within the constraints of social distancing restrictions.
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021. Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival was staged as a "hybrid" of in-person and digital screenings. Most films were screened both in-person and on the digital platform, although a few titles were withheld by their distributors from the digital platform and instead were screened exclusively in-person.
Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin and released in 2021. The film intercuts excerpts of former Canadian senator Murray Sinclair's 2016 acceptance speech, when he was presented with an award by the World Federalist Movement-Canada in honour of his role as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, with the personal testimonies of various survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system.
The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022.
The TIFF Tribute Awards are an annual award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to honour distinguished achievements in filmmaking. Unlike the festival's regular awards, which are presented based on audience or jury voting during the festival, the TIFF Tribute Awards are presented to people or organizations selected by the board and announced in advance of the festival. Recipients are selected from among the cast and crew of the films in that year's festival lineup.
Bones of Crows is a 2022 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed by Marie Clements. The film stars Grace Dove as Aline Spears, a Cree woman who survives the Indian residential school system to become a code talker for the Canadian Air Force during World War II.
Bill Reid Remembers is a 2022 Canadian short documentary film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin. The film is a portrait of the life and career of influential Haida artist Bill Reid.
When All the Leaves Are Gone is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin and released in 2010. One of just two narrative fiction films, alongside Sigwan, that Obomsawin made in a career otherwise devoted entirely to documentary films, the film dramatizes Obomsawin's childhood experiences through the story of Wato, a young girl experiencing anti-indigenous prejudice as the only First Nations student in an otherwise all-white school in the 1940s, who finds comfort and strength in the magical world of her dreams.
Sigwan is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin and released in 2005. One of just two narrative fiction films, alongside When All the Leaves Are Gone, that Obomsawin made in a career otherwise devoted entirely to documentary films, the film dramatizes the story of a young indigenous girl who is comforted and counselled by the wisdom of forest animals.