Amisk

Directed by Alanis Obomsawin

Canada, 1977 (documentary, 40 minutes, colour, English)

Image: © National Film Board of Canada

Film Description:
"A week-long festival was organized by a group of Montreal residents to raise funds in support of the Cree Indians who stood to lose their land because of the James Bay hydro-electric project. This film, made by Native filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, alternates between spectacular performances by Indian and Inuit peoples and the meeting halls of Mistassini, where they talk of their past as a way of defending their future."
-- National Film Board of Canada (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Produced by:	Alanis Obomsawin, Dorothy Courtois, Wolf Koenig
Cinematography:	Bob Charlie, Buckley Petawabano
Film Editing:	Jeanette Lerman, Buckley Petawabano, Daniel Wapachee, Judith Merritt
Production Company:	National Film Board of Canada

(sources)

Quote about Amisk

"Amisk is more than a concert film, a somewhat pejorative designation in nonfiction cinema. Rather, it is a testimony to cultural survival and creativity. Indeed, Obomsawin captured what was in many ways a turning point for Native resistance against government arrogance and white Canadian ethnocentrism, using the concert as a microcosm of the larger perspective in which unique Native voices would talk back to white Canada and, for the first time, be heard."
-- Randolph Lewis (source)

Bibliography for Amisk

Brief Sections of Books

Lewis, Randolph. Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native Filmmaker. American Indian Lives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. (pp. 45-48)

Web Sites about Amisk

National Film Board of Canada. "NFB -- Amisk." National Film Board of Canada. http://nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=13439&v=h&lg=en&exp=.