Christmas at Moose Factory
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Canada, 1971 (documentary / children's, 13 minutes, colour, English)
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| Image: © National Film Board of Canada |
Film Description:
"Children's crayon drawings, and the voice of a little girl telling what the pictures are about, create a charming study of life at Christmas time in Moose Factory, an old settlement, mainly of Indian families, on the shore of James Bay. Incidents big and small are illustrated and described with childish candor, conveying to the viewer a strong sense of being there."
-- National Film Board of Canada
(source)
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| Film Credits (partial): |
| Written by: |
Alanis Obomsawin |
| Produced by: |
Wolf Koenig, Robert Verrall |
| Cinematography: |
Ben Low |
| Music: |
Sinclair Cheecho, Jane Cheecho, Arthur Cheecho |
| Production Company: |
National Film Board of Canada / Office national du film du Canada |
(sources)
Notes about Christmas at Moose Factory
- Shown at the Women and Film International Festival (Toronto) in 1973.
(sources)
Quotes about Christmas at Moose Factory
"[Christmas at Moose Factory] features a fluid montage of children's drawings made by the Swampy Cree children at a residential school on the shore of the James Bay in Northern Ontario. In poignant voiceover, the children narrate their drawings about Christmas. The narration is accompanied by haunting sound effects and music, such as the wind blowing, dogs howling, and 'Jesus Loves Me' sung in Cree. While not technically animated, the camera moves over the drawings with loving attention, bringing them to life for the viewer. [Alanis] Obomsawin's film calls attention to one of the most shameful aspects of Canada's history in a moving and subtle way. It is heartbreaking to think of the children isolated from their parents by the residential school system, particularly during the Christmas season."
-- Jennifer Gauthier
(source)
"In rapid succession, [Alanis] Obomsawin shows us several drawings of a conventional Christmas star, before she mixes in cultural difference, suddenly but unthreateningly, through peals of laughter and two-dimensional images familiar to every parent, uncle, or aunt. As a drawing of an angel appears on-screen, several young voices are quick to tell us that it is no ordinary angel—it is an 'Indian angel,' we learn."
-- Randolph Lewis
(source)
"Christmas at Moose Factory acts as an introduction. It is with this film that the mother of Indigenous cinema [Alanis Obomsawin] first introduced herself and sparked a revolution of filmmaking that continues to this day. Her legacy, and that of this particular film, is held on-screen, in the hearts of the communities and children whose stories she has helped to tell over the last 50 years, and with the futures of the children born into a world she has helped to change."
-- Jesse Wente
(source)
Bibliography for Christmas at Moose Factory
Book Chapters
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Wente, Jesse. "Christmas at Moose Factory."
In Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework, edited by Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg, 20-27. 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. 36-39)
Web Sites about Christmas at Moose Factory
