Alanis Obomsawin

Alanis Obomsawin, OC GOQ (born August 31, 1932) is a Canadian filmmaker of Abenaki descent. Born in New Hampshire, and raised primarily in Quebec, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Her best known documentary is Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, about the 1990 Oka Crisis, Quebec.

Obomsawin directed her first documentary for the NFB, Christmas at Moose Factory, in 1971. As of November 2016, she has directed 49 films with the NFB, with 50th film scheduled to be released shortly: a documentary film on a school in the community of Norway House Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba.

Her latest completed film is the 2016 documentary We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice, exploring a over discrimination against First Nation children, which had its world premiere on September 13 at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is the 49th that she has directed for the National Film Board of Canada—with her 50th, Norway House, in production.

Obomsawin's 2014 documentary Trick or Treaty? was the first film by an indigenous filmmaker to screen in the Masters programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. Obomsawin began conceptualizing the film in 2010 when she was invited by Stan Louttit, Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council, to film a conference the band was hosting about Treaty No. 9.

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