Alanis Obomsawin, Incident at Restigouche, 1984, Canada, film still
Incident at Restigouche (1984), Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 46 min. English
The People of the Kattawapiskak River (2012), Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 78 min. English
July 13: With a presentation by Alanis Obomsawin and Candice Hopkins
In Incident at Restigouche, filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin 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 Mi’kmaq 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.
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary The People of the Kattawapiskak River exposes the housing crisis faced by 1,700 Cree in Northern Ontario, a situation that led Attawapiskat’s band chief, Theresa Spence, to ask the Canadian Red Cross for help. With the Idle No More movement making front-page headlines, this film provides background and context for one aspect of the growing crisis.
Candice Hopkins is a documenta 14 curator.
Alanis Obomsawin is a member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s foremost documentary filmmakers, chronicling the lives and struggles of First Nations people.
[smallTV Politics is a film program that revisits some of the most significant attempts to articulate a radical approach to the politics of television since the mid twentieth century. It revisits film works conceived for the purpose of rethinking what television could be, while at the same time seeking to provide a different kind of analysis of social and cultural reality.
