A short documentary about the Ojibwe Native Americans of Northern Minnesota and the wild rice (Manoomin) they consider a sacred gift from the Creator. The film tells the Creation and Migration stories that are central to the tribe's oral history and belief system while showing the traditional process of hand-harvesting and parching the wild rice. Biotech companies are currently researching ways to genetically modify the rice and the community is fighting to keep it wild.
Narrator (voice)
The wild beauty of the Bella Coola Valley blends with vivid watercolor animation illuminating the role of the Nuxalk oral tradition and the intersection of story, place and culture.
Exploring the art of Armenian portraitist Hakob Hovnatanyan, Parajanov revives the culture of Tbilisi of the 19th century.
Delphine Seyrig reads passages from a Valerie Solanas’s SCUM manifesto.
Actor/cult icon Bruce Campbell examines the world of fan conventions and what makes a fan into a fanatic.
Upon realising her generation won’t have a future unless the world’s politicians act now on climate change, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg skipped school in August 2018 to protest outside the Swedish parliament. What started as a one person strike soon gained global momentum. We follow Greta and the organisers of the school strikes for climate as they are cementing a worldwide movement ahead of their first global protest that took place on March 15th, 2019. It was the biggest climate strike in history with up to 1.6 million students in more than 125 countries.
ARCTIC SUMMER is a poetic meditation on Tuktoyaktuk, an Indigenous community in the Arctic. The film captures Tuk during one of the last summers before climate change forced Tuk's coastal population to relocate to more habitable land.
Ultrarunners overcome every kind of hardship. During her first run of the season, Mirna Valerio has to silence those who think she's not fit for this sport.
In the summer of 2000, federal fishery officers appeared to wage war on the Mi'gmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest court in the land? Alanis Obomsawin casts her nets into history to provide a context for the events on Miramichi Bay.
Elem Klimov's documentary ode to his wife, director Larisa Shepitko, who was killed in an auto wreck.
An isolated village in the Lithuanian countryside. Seated in her house, an elderly woman recites an old folk story. Then she climbs up the tall ladder that takes her to the rooftop of the church.
Incident at Restigouche is a 1984 documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling a series of two raids on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation (Restigouche) by the Sûreté du Québec in 1981, as part of the efforts of the Quebec government to impose new restrictions on Native salmon fishermen. Incident at Restigouche delves into the history behind the Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) raids on the Restigouche Reserve on June 11 and 20, 1981. The Quebec government had decided to restrict fishing, resulting in anger among the Micmac Indians as salmon was traditionally an important source of food and income. Using a combination of documents, news clips, photographs and interviews, this powerful film provides an in-depth investigation into the history-making raids that put justice on trial.
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
Computer animation and footage from NASA space missions explain how our solar system evolved and the place Earth has within the system.
In a comparative study between different forms of calligraphy, the film traces parallels between modern Japanese painting and traditional Japanese writing.
A frustrated Hollywood actress is doing an unusual “part-time job.”
A 4 year-old boy stands in awe of a 1,000 year-old Viking boat in a small Norwegian museum and finds within its silent grace an impressionistic sweep of picture and music revealing the rich spirit of Norway and its people. (This is the movie that was shown after the Maelstrom Ride in Epcot Center)