Quote:
"One aspect of [Alanis] Obomsawin's cinema that quickly distinguishes it from her contemporaries' is its oddly pared-down form. Her work displays little in the way of stylistic flourish or excess, and usually features explanatory voice-overs that might remind some of dull, pedagogical (NFB?) documentaries of the 1950s. However, this apparently simple aesthetic is peppered with a pronounced subjectivity. Furthermore, Obomsawin's work displays a tendency towards lyricism and massive narrative digressions, both techniques that shatter conventions of documentary realism."
-- Jerry White

Source:
White, Jerry. "Alanis Obomsawin, Documentary Form and the Canadian Nation(s)." ["Originally appeared in CineAction! 49 (1999)."] In North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980, edited by William Beard and Jerry White. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2002. (p. 366)