Amisk
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Canada, 1977 (documentary, 40 minutes, colour, English)
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| 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)
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| 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)
Quotes about Amisk
"Watching Amisk, I am really struck that Alanis [Obomsawin] managed to bring together so many different people. The connections she had already established as a programmer at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Southern Ontario must have been crucial, but it is worth thinking about what coming together meant at the time. Right now, if a bunch of Indigenous artists or musicians get together from across the country, that's perfectly normal, but back then it was still quite special. You can see Alanis drawing out these connections in the very structure of the film. [...]"
-- Richard William Hill
(source)
"The performances are shot in a traditional observational style [in Amisk]. But [Alanis] Obomsawin creates a unique, idiosyncratic rendering of time-space for testimony and witness. When we see Indigenous people who listen, rapt and animated in their attention, just as Obomsawin is when we see her performing this function—the Indigenous witness, the local listener, the active receiver—we are taught a new way to perform our function as well."
-- Alexandra Juhasz
(source)
"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
Book Chapters
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Hill, Richard William. "What Resurgence Looked Like: Richard William Hill speaks with Cheryl L'hirondelle and Joseph Naytowhow."
In Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework, edited by Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg, 84-95. Munich: Prestel, 2022. 'This book accompanies the exhibition The Children Have to Hear Another Story—Alanis Obomsawin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, January 23-April 18, 2022; Vancouver Art Gallery, Spring 2023; Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Summer 2023'.
[exhibition catalogue]
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Juhasz, Alexandra. "The Gift of Time: Listening in Amisk."
In Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework, edited by Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg, 62-83. Munich: Prestel, 2022. 'This book accompanies the exhibition The Children Have to Hear Another Story—Alanis Obomsawin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, January 23-April 18, 2022; Vancouver Art Gallery, Spring 2023; Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Summer 2023'.
[exhibition catalogue]
Brief Sections of Books
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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
