Please join us for screenings of Bill Reid Remembers, Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair, and Upstairs with David Amram. Watch these beautifully told stories by filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin for FREE. After the screenings, join us for a discussion with special guests, Alanis Obomsawin and Sonya Ballantyne.
6:15pm • Doors Open
6:30pm • Food by FEAST
7pm • Screening
Discussion to follow
Alanis Obomsawin
One of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, Alanis Obomsawin came to cinema from performance and storytelling and has created an extraordinary body of work—50 films and counting. These works include landmark documentaries like Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). The Abenaki director has received numerous international honours and her work was showcased in a 2008 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “My main interest all my life has been education,” says Obomsawin, “because that’s where you develop yourself, where you learn to hate, or to love.”
Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida artist Bill Reid always kept Haida Gwaii close to his heart. While working for CBC Radio, he started learning how to make jewelry, then later sculpture, using Haida techniques and images, a move that would forever change his life and the Canadian artistic landscape.
A legendary talent and multi-instrumentalist, David Amram embodies the passion and love musicians have for their artform. In this remarkable conversation recorded in 2008 at Montreal’s celebrated Upstairs jazz bar, Alanis and David reflect on their shared history and a time when music was a powerful tool for social change.
As the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Senator Murray Sinclair was a key figure in raising global awareness of the atrocities of Canada’s residential school system. With determination, wisdom and kindness, Senator Sinclair remains steadfast in his belief that the path to actual reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people requires understanding and accepting often difficult truths about Canada’s past and present.
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