The Pass System is a Canadian documentary film released in 2015, focusing on the former Canadian government policy known as the pass system, which enforced the segregation of First Nations people on their reserves.
The film was extensively researched, directed, and produced by Alex Williams, with narration provided by Tantoo Cardinal. James Cullingham served as the executive producer, and Cris Derksen composed the music for the documentary.
With the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and the community, the film was produced in association with Tamarack Productions. Its premiere took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, as part of the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival.
The Pass System initially aired on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network on April 13, 2016. Subsequently, it was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's main network on June 19, 2016, at 1 p.m. [1] [2] [3]
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its English-language and French-language service units known as CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively.
The media of Canada is highly autonomous, uncensored, diverse, and very regionalized. Canada has a well-developed media sector, but its cultural output—particularly in English films, television shows, and magazines—is often overshadowed by imports from the United States. As a result, the preservation of a distinctly Canadian culture is supported by federal government programs, laws, and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
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Aboriginal Voices Radio Network was a Canadian radio network, which primarily broadcast music programming and other content of interest to aboriginal people. As of June 2015, the network operated stations in Toronto, Ontario, Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta, and Vancouver, British Columbia. All of its stations were licensed as rebroadcasters of its flagship station, CKAV-FM in Toronto. The network's administrative office was located in Ohsweken, Ontario, on the Six Nations Indian reserve near Brantford. The stations' music programming consisted mainly of adult contemporary music, along with specialty programs focusing on aboriginal-oriented content.
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.
John Zaritsky was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker. His work has been broadcast in 35 countries and screened at more than 40 film festivals around the world; in 1983, his film Just Another Missing Kid won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, formerly known as the Burrard Indian Band or Burrard Inlet Indian Band, is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation ("TWN") are Coast Salish peoples who speak hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the Downriver dialect of the Halkomelem language, and are closely related to but politically and culturally separate from the nearby nations of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), with whose traditional territories some claims overlap.
Richard Charles Bocking was an award-winning Canadian filmmaker whose documentaries on the environment and the performing arts aired on Canadian and European network television for over forty years.
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) is a group of Canadian specialty television channels based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The channels broadcast programming produced by or highlighting Indigenous peoples in Canada, including arts, cultural, documentary, entertainment, and news and current affairs programming.
Mohawk Girls is a 2005 documentary film by Tracey Deer about the experiences of adolescent girls growing up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal, Quebec. Deer, who was born and raised in Kahnawake, focuses on three young women: Felicia, Amy, and Lauren, a mixed race teen.
Jody Wilson-Raybould, also known by her initials JWR and by her Kwak’wala name Puglaas, is a Canadian lawyer, author, and former politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the British Columbia (BC) riding of Vancouver Granville from 2015 to 2021. She was initially elected as a member of the Liberal Party – serving as justice minister and attorney general from 2015 to 2019, and briefly as veterans minister and associate national defence minister in 2019 – until she resigned in response to statements from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the SNC-Lavalin affair. She was later expelled from caucus and continued to sit in Parliament as an Independent and was reelected in 2019, but did not run in 2021. Before entering federal politics, she was a BC provincial Crown prosecutor, a treaty commissioner and regional chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations.
Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, and producer. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards.
The pass system was a system of internal passports for Indigenous Canadians between 1885 and 1941. It was administered by the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA), beginning after the 1885 North-West Rebellion as part of a broader effort to confine indigenous people to Indian reserves, then newly formed through the Numbered Treaties. The system, initially intended as a temporary measure to quell disorder in the prairie provinces, eventually became a permanent feature of federal Indian affairs policy.
Cris Derksen is a two-spirit Juno Award–nominated Cree cellist from Northern Alberta, Canada. Derksen is known for her unique musical sound which blends classical music with traditional Indigenous music. Her music is often described as "electronic cello" or classical traditional fusion.
Elder Larry Grant is a Musqueam and Chinese-Canadian elder, educator, adjunct professor, mechanic, longshoreman, and cultural consultant.