Acclaimed Indigenous documentarian featured in latest Koostachin movie
By Sam Laskaris
VANCOUVER – It was an easy sell for Jules Koostachin.
Koostachin didn’t have to do much arm-twisting to get legendary Indigenous documentarian Alanis Obomsawin to be featured in her latest movie.
“Anytime I talk to Alanis about film, she’s a yes,” Koostachin said. “That’s her passion.”
As a result, Obomsawin agreed to be included in both the opening and closing scenes of NiiMisSak: Sisters In Film, which had its world premiere at the Whistler Film Festival on Dec. 6. NiiMisSak is the Cree word for sisters.
Koostachin is a member of Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario, but she currently lives in Vancouver.
As for Obomsawin, she was born in New Hampshire but grew up on Odanak First Nation in Quebec.
Koostachin’s latest documentary primarily features the stories of Indigenous women from British Columbia that are working in the film and TV industry.
Koostachin felt it was vital to include commentary from Obomsawin, who is 92 and has directed close to 60 films during her career.
“Alanis is a legend,” Koostachin said in her documentary. “And she has greatly contributed to Indigenous cinema. She’s our film matriarch. She has cleared the way for all of us Indigenous filmmakers living in what is now called Canada.”
The movie’s opening interview with Obomsawin was shot at the National Film Board of Canada office in Montreal.
Other filmmakers featured in the documentary include Kira Doxtator, Marie Clements, Jessie Anthony, Kayah George, Tristin Greyeyes and Asia Youngman. Obomsawin is thrilled times have changed from when she was young and that Indigenous women can be involved in the film industry.
“We used to get punished if we spoke our language,” she said in NiiMisSak’s closing scene. “I heard when I was a child, all my life as a child, ‘Your language is Satan’s language.’ I heard that all the time. Today, it’s very different. You don’t have to be afraid ever again to go and ask for help for something you want to do that is that important for the country, for our people.”
And though she had to struggle to get her early films made, Obomsawin persevered.
“I believed in it so much and I was scared of nobody,” she said. “I love my people. I adore children. And I keep moving mountains. That’s what I do.”
Koostachin first met Obomsawin while she was a student at Montreal’s Concordia University, where one of her classmates and a close friend was Obomsawin’s daughter.
Koostachin said she would often go to the Obomsawin home but early on did not even realize her friend had a famous mother.
“I just used to go to her house and eat,” Koostachin said. “That’s all we did in university. We were just hungry.”
Koostachin said she realized the elder Obomsawin was a significant figure after she watched Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.
That 1993 film, which Obomsawin produced, is arguably her best-known production. The film is about the military siege of a First Nation which happened in 1990 near Oka, located in Quebec.
“And then I made that connection that, ‘Wow, your mom is amazing’,” Koostachin said of her friend.