Alanis Obomsawin | |
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 Obomsawin after recording Waseteg in 2010 | |
| Born | August 31, 1932 (age 92) |
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| Position held | creative director (Mariposa Folk Festival, 1970–1976)  |
Alanis Obomsawin, CC GOQ (born August 31, 1932) is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films.[1] Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.
Obomsawin relates that "the basic purpose [of her films] is for our people to have a voice [...] no matter what we're talking about whether it has to do with having our existence recognized, or whether it has to do with speaking about our values, our survival, our beliefs, that we belong to something beautiful, that it's O.K. to be an Indian, to be a native person in this country".[2] Her best known documentary is Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, regarding the 1990 Oka Crisis in Quebec.[3]
- ^ "HorizonZero Issue 09 : WITNESS". www.horizonzero.ca. Archived from the original on December 24, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ Pick, Zuzana (1999). "Storytelling and Resistance: The Documentary Practice of Alanis Obomsawin". In Banning, Kass (ed.). Gendering the Nation : Canadian Women's Cinema. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. p. 78.
- ^ National Film Board (1993). "Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance". Archived from the original on April 30, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2011.