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Stories Are in Our Bones
Janine Windolph takes her young sons fishing with their kokum (grandmother), a residential school survivor who retains a deep knowledge and memory of the land. The act of reconnecting with their homeland is a cultural and familial healing journey for the boys, who are growing up in the city. It’s also a powerful form of…
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The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
In a chance encounter, Áila finds Rosie, pregnant and barefoot in the street, and takes her home in order to escape Rosie’s violent boyfriend who assaulted her. As the two women explore and unpack the traumatic event that Rosie survived, their relationship becomes one of deep connection and safety in a world that has harmed…
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The Business of Fancydancing
Confronting his past, Seymour Polatkin, a Native American poet, embarks on a journey back to his home community to attend a close friend’s funeral. Through his experiences, we see him reconcile and make sense of his past.
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The Grizzlies
Telling the inspiring true story of Inuit students in the small Arctic town of Kugluktuk, Miranda de Pencier depicts the negotiations the northern community must make facing widespread drug use, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world due to the legacy of colonialism. In the film, we…
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The Oka Legacy
In the summer of 1990, all eyes were on the small town of Oka, for a standoff between the Mohawk people of Kanehsatake, Quebec police, and eventually the Canadian army. The town of Oka’s plans to expand a golf course onto unceded Mohawk land triggered the violent clash. Mohawk filmmaker Sonia Bonspille-Boileau retraces the events…
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The People of the Kattawapiskak River
Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of the People of Kattawapiskak River. When Chief Teresa Spence called a state of emergency in 2012 for a housing crisis in the community of Kattawapiskak, the media immediately pointed the finger to the First Nations Band Council for misappropriating the funds they were given by the Canadian Government. This…
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The Road Forward
The Road Forward is a musical documentary by Marie Clements. The film sheds light on the Indian Nationalism Movement’s evolution from the early 1930s until today, tributing the fighters for Indigenous rights and acknowledging the history and the government’s inaccountability to respect Indigenous People.
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This River
When the body of a 14-year-old girl was pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River in 2014, it sparked a public outcry and renewed calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. It also galvanized a small group of Winnipeg citizens, who acted and formed Drag the Red. This film follows the volunteers who…
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Two Spirits
Filmmaker Lydia Nibley explores the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder. Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he ‘bug-smashed a fag.’ But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition—the ‘nadleeh,’ or ‘two-spirit’—who possess a balance of masculine…
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Two Worlds Colliding
In 2000, Darryl Night was left in -20 degree weather by RCMP. Although he survived, he discovered other deaths of Indigenous men who had been left in similar ways by RCMP. This documentary is an inquiry into what came to be known as Saskatoon’s infamous “freezing deaths,” and the schism between a fearful, mistrustful Indigenous…
Land Acknowledgement
The UBC School of Social Work acknowledges that we are situated on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) People.