The Best Indigenous Films told by Indigenous FilmmakersLike this list

18 items

• Indigenous cinema at the NFB - Indigenous Cinema - NFB

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  Discover the National Film Board of Canada's collection of films by Indigenous filmmakers, from Alanis Obomsawin to Gil Cardinal.

• Ever Deadly

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  Documentary. Canadian Inuk throat singer, songwriter, novelist and visual artist Tanya Tagaq speaks about matters that are important to her, including the seal hunt, the forced relocation of her family and how her parents shaped her.

• Bones of Crows

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  Drama. Cree code talker Aline Spears survives her traumatic past in Canada's residential school system to continue her family's generational fight against systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse.

• Frybread Face and Me

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  Two adolescent Navajo cousins from different worlds bond during a summer on their grandmother's Arizona ranch, learning more about their family's past and about themselves.

• Red Snow

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  War Drama. Dylan, a Gwich'in soldier from the Canadian Arctic, is caught in an ambush in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

• Night Raiders

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  Science Fiction Thriller. Set in a dystopian version of North America in the year 2044, the film centres on Niska, a Cree woman who joins a resistance movement against the oppressive military government in order to save her daughter.

• Abandoned

  Angelique's Isle

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  Historical Drama. A harrowing tale of perseverance and survival that unfolds during the great copper rush of 1845, when newlyweds Angelique, a young Ojibway, and Charlie, her voyageur husband, are left stranded throughout a brutal winter on Lake…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Blood Quantum

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  Horror. Mi'kmaq director Jeff Barnaby, the dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.

• The Sun at Midnight

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  Drama. A rebellious teenage runaway and a reclusive hunter forge an unlikely bond when Lia, the teen, becomes lost in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

• Smoke Signals

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  Comedy Drama. Chris Eyre’s road movie based on Sherman Alexie’s screenplay is a touchstone for Indigenous cinema, bringing humor to a story of contemporary Indigenous life.

• Malni - Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore

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  A poetic, experimental debut feature circling the origin of the death myth from the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest.

• Empty Metal

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  Privacy is a fleeting but precious commodity in a world filled with mass surveillance and pervasive policing.

• Portraits From a Fire

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  Comedy Drama. A teen spends his days recording and vlogging his Indigenous community and hanging out with his grandparents. That is until he meets an older, influential teenager who pushes him to show his latest work about his family to the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Barking Water

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  Hoping to see his daughter and grandchild, a terminally ill man embarks on a road trip with his former lover.

• The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

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  Drama. Winner of multiple awards, this films centres on a chance encounter on a busy street, when a woman decides to bring a pregnant domestic abuse victim home and encourages her to seek help to navigate the aftermath of the traumatic event.

• The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw

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  Drama Comedy. Mitzi Bearclaw's dream to design cool hats is put on hold when she decides to move back to her isolated reserve to look after her sick mother.

• Falls Around Her

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  Thriller. Tantoo Cardinal stars as Mary, a renowned Anishinaabe musician who returns to Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation in northern Ontario to rest and recharge; only to discover that fame and the outside world are not easily left behind.

• Rustic Oracle

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  Action Drama. When her older sister vanishes from their Mohawk community, eight year-old Ivy joins her mother Susan in a desperate search that lays bare the authorities’ indifference towards missing Indigenous Women and Girls.