Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native FilmmakerIn more than twenty powerful films, Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has waged a brilliant battle against the ignorance and stereotypes that Native Americans have long endured in cinema and television. In this book, the first devoted to any Native filmmaker, Obomsawin receives her due as the central figure in the development of indigenous media in North America. ř Incorporating history, politics, and film theory into a compelling narrative, Randolph Lewis explores the life and work of a multifaceted woman whose career was flourishing long before Native films such as Smoke Signals reached the screen. He traces Obomsawin?s path from an impoverished Abenaki reserve in the 1930s to bohemian Montreal in the 1960s, where she first found fame as a traditional storyteller and singer. Lewis follows her career as a celebrated documentary filmmaker, citing her courage in covering, at great personal risk, the 1991 Oka Crisis between Mohawk warriors and Canadian soldiers. We see how, since the late 1960s, Obomsawin has transformed documentary film, reshaping it for the first time into a crucial forum for sharing indigenous perspectives. Through a careful examination of her work, Lewis proposes a new vision for indigenous media around the globe: a ?cinema of sovereignty? based on what Obomsawin has accomplished. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abenaki Aboriginal activist Alanis Obomsawin Alanis Obomsawin PRODUCER Alioff and Levine American Amisk artist audience barricades Board of Canada camera cinema of sovereignty Cohen creative cultural decades describes documentary film documentary filmmaker fishing footage gender Grierson images Incident at Restigouche Indian indigenous media interview with author John Grierson Kahentiiosta Kanehsatake Kateri Tekakwitha land Leonard Cohen lives look mainstream mass media Merata Mita Métis Mi'kmaq middle ground Mohawk Montreal Moose Factory NARRATION National Film Board Nationhood Native filmmakers Native women Navajo non-Native nonfiction cinema Northwest Passage Obom Obomsawin quoted Obomsawin's films Odanak Oka crisis on-screen Panadis past Photograph political raid reality Richard Cardinal Robert Verrall sawin says scholars SCRIPT AND TEXT social songs stories storytelling suggest talking television tell traditional tribal tribe Vargas Llosa viewers vision voice warriors Western Abenaki white Canadians Wiseman woman young