A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most distinguished filmmakers, Alanis Obomsawin is a director and producer at the National Film Board of Canada, where she has worked since 1967.
In September 2021, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is presenting the world premiere of Ms. Obomsawin’s new film, Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair, which shares the powerful speech Senator Sinclair gave when he accepted the WFM-Canada World Peace Award, interspersed with the heartbreaking testimonies of former students imprisoned at residential schools.
It’s her 53rd film in a legendary career spanning 54 years, devoted to chronicling the lives and concerns of First Nations people and exploring issues of importance to all.
TIFF is also presenting Obomsawin with the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media, recognizing leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema, along with a career retrospective entitled Celebrating Alanis.
In 2020, Obomsawin received the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award at the DOC Institute Honours, given to an individual who embodies the creative spirit of the Canadian documentary tradition and displays generosity by supporting the next generation of doc-makers through mentorship, as well as the Glenn Gould Prize, presented once every two years to recognize a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human condition through the arts.
Obomsawin was honoured at the 2020 Gala Québec Cinéma with the Iris Homage, awarded to artists who’ve had an exemplary career and whose work has contributed significantly to the influence of Quebec cinema.
Ms. Obomsawin’s 2019 production Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger completed a seven-film cycle devoted to the rights of Indigenous children and Peoples, which began in 2011 when she conducted her first interviews for The People of the Kattawapiskak River.
Obomsawin’s body of work includes such landmark films as Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), documenting the 1990 Mohawk uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka, as well as her groundbreaking Incident at Restigouche (1984), a behind-the-scenes look at Quebec police raids on a Mi’kmaq reserve.
In January 2022, the retrospective The Children Have to Hear Another Story: Alanis Obomsawin will be presented at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, in conjunction with the publication Lifework: Alanis Obomsawin.
