In 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. ø 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.

A grizzly bear tells of her life in the Montana wilderness, from sharing adventures and mischief with her brother Jim, to learning from other animals as she tramps around by herself, to becoming a mother to her own cubs.

Art book covering the work of Indigenous artist, Alanis Obomsawin. She has been a unique and special leader in the development of Indigenous thought, scholarship, accuracy, and activism, doing it through the arts, and inspiring really every facet of the Indigenous artistry of today, from fashion to film-making. An activist who got the facts right first, and then found multiple ways to distribute that knowledge to the rest of us, she researched it from the inside: she wrote it; she filmed it; she sang about it; she directed it; she developed it; and she got it seen - when most people would have denied any of that was possible, let alone to be accomplished by an Indigenous woman.

Winner, 2019 John W. Frick Book Award Winner, 2020 Ann Saddlemyer Award Finalist, ATHE Outstanding Book Award for 2020 Mention Spéciale, Société québécoise d'études théâtrale In Encounters on Contested Lands, Julie Burelle employs a performance studies lens to examine how instances of Indigenous self-representation in Québec challenge the national and identity discourses of the French Québécois de souche—the French-speaking descendants of white European settlers who understand themselves to be settlers no more but rather colonized and rightfully belonging to the territory of Québec. Analyzing a wide variety of performances, Burelle brings together the theater of Alexis Martin and the film L'Empreinte, which repositions the French Québécois de souche as métis, with protest marches led by Innu activists; the Indigenous company Ondinnok's theater of repatriation; the films of Yves Sioui Durand, Alanis Obomsawin, and the Wapikoni Mobile project; and the visual work of Nadia Myre. These performances, Burelle argues, challenge received definitions of sovereignty and articulate new ones while proposing to the province and, more specifically, to the French Québécois de souche, that there are alternative ways to imagine Québec's future and remember its past. The performances insist on Québec's contested nature and reframe it as animated by competing sovereignties. Together they reveal how the "colonial present tense" and "tense colonial present" operate in conjunction as they work to imagine an alternative future predicated on decolonization. Encounters on Contested Lands engages with theater and performance studies while making unique and needed contributions to Québec and Canadian studies, as well as to Indigenous and settler-colonial studies.

*INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER Detectives dig into the dark side of Toronto when a serial killer targets homeless people camped out near one of the city’s most exclusive enclaves in this latest crime thriller from bestselling author Robert Rotenberg. Exactly what is one person’s death worth? For decades, the Humber River Golf Course has been one of the city’s most elite clubs. All is perfect in this playground for the rich, until homeless people move into the pristine ravine nearby, and tensions mount between rich and poor and reach a head when two of the squatters are brutally murdered. The killings send shockwaves through the city, and suspicion immediately falls upon the members of the club. Protests by homeless groups and their supporters erupt. Suddenly the homelessness problem has caught the attention of the press, politicians, and the public. Ari Greene, now the head of the homicide squad, leaves behind his plush new office and, with his former protégé Daniel Kennicott in tow, returns to the streets to investigate. Meanwhile, Greene’s daughter, Alison, a dynamic young TV journalist, reports on the untold story of extreme poverty in Toronto. With all the attention focused on the murders, pressure is on Greene to find the killer—now. He calls on his old contacts and his well-honed instincts to pursue the killer and save the city and the people he loves. But then a third body is found. A riveting page-turner ringing with authenticity, Downfall is a scathing look at the growing disparity between rich and poor in Canada’s wealthiest city.

One of today’s most important documentary filmmakers, Alanis Obomsawin has dedicated her life’s work to shining a light on the injustices experienced by Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This retrospective monograph features an extensive interview with Obomsawin and includes images and written reflections on her entire career, including her most recent series devoted to the rights of Indigenous children. Never shying away from controversy, Obomsawin’s films have played a critical role in exposing ongoing systemic bias toward Indigenous populations—from fishing rights and education to health care and treaty violations. Obomsawin is also a graphic artist, and she incorporates her often dream-inspired etchings and prints into many of her films. The book includes illuminating essays exploring Obomsawin’s practice and mission as well as personal commentary from collaborators, archival material, and photographs from the filmmaker’s personal life and professional practice. As Obomsawin approaches her ninth decade of life—fifth behind the camera—this beautifully illustrated record of her astounding body of work is an inspiring celebration of the power of film to change the course of history. Authors include Karrmen Crey, Richard Fung, Monika Kin Gagnon, Candice Hopkins, Jessica L. Horton, Elizabeth Povinelli, Lisa Steele, and Jesse Wente.

“An essential book for courses on Native film, indigenous media, not to mention more general courses . . . A very impressive and useful collection.” —Randolph Lewis, author of Navajo Talking Picture The film industry and mainstream popular culture are notorious for promoting stereotypical images of Native Americans: the noble and ignoble savage, the pronoun-challenged sidekick, the ruthless warrior, the female drudge, the princess, the sexualized maiden, the drunk, and others. Over the years, Indigenous filmmakers have both challenged these representations and moved past them, offering their own distinct forms of cinematic expression. Native Americans on Film draws inspiration from the Indigenous film movement, bringing filmmakers into an intertextual conversation with academics from a variety of disciplines. The resulting dialogue opens a myriad of possibilities for engaging students with ongoing debates: What is Indigenous film? Who is an Indigenous filmmaker? What are Native filmmakers saying about Indigenous film and their own work? This thought-provoking text offers theoretical approaches to understanding Native cinema, includes pedagogical strategies for teaching particular films, and validates the different voices, approaches, and worldviews that emerge across the movement. “Accomplished scholars in the emerging field of Native film studies, Marubbio and Buffalohead . . . focus clearly on the needs of this field. They do scholars and students of Native film a great service by reprinting four seminal and provocative essays.” —James Ruppert, author of Meditation in Contemporary Native American Literature “Succeed[s] in depicting the complexities in study, teaching, and creating Native film . . . Regardless of an individual’s level of knowledge and expertise in Native film, Native Americans on Film is a valuable read for anyone interested in this topic.” —Studies in American Indian Literatures