A film initially was released alongside an injunction granted from the BC court to Teal Jones, enabling them to forcibly remove forest protectors who have been sacrificing their worlds at home to stand and defend some of the last of the 2.7% remaining old-growth on Vancouver Island. In collaboration with filmmaker, Ian MacKenzie, the short-film depicts how much we truly depend on these Ancient Forests for our survival as well.
Self
In this feature-length documentary, 8 Inuit teens with cameras offer a vibrant and contemporary view of life in Canada's North. They also use their newly acquired film skills to confront a broad range of issues, from the widening communication gap between youth and their elders to the loss of their peers to suicide. In Inuktitut with English subtitles.
A documentary exploring the controversial use of blood quantum in determining Native American identity.
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
The largest man-made disaster of the 20th century, now largely lost to history. A journey through the early history of Los Angeles and the city's water needs. Ever-growing demand led to larger and larger projects, and eventually to tragedy. The history of the tragedy, the role of William Mulholland in the disaster and the city's water development, and how the lessons of the tragedy reflect on our current infrastructure needs today.
Three decades on from the disaster, Chernobyl shows signs of life again.
Examines the global fisheries crisis and the forces pushing many marine fish stocks toward commercial extinction. Documents some promising and innovative efforts to restore fisheries and protect essential fish habitat. Examines new market initiatives giving consumers a powerful vote in deciding how our oceans are fished. Commentary is provided by fishermen and by many of the world's most respected marine and fisheries scientists.
In El Salvador, Chelino tells about the indigenous massacre of 1932, of which he survived, while he teaches the melodies of traditional Salvadoran dances.
Herlinda Augustin is a Shipibo healer who lives with her family in Peruvian Amazonia. Will she and other healers be able to maintain their ancient tradition despite Western encroachment?
INAATE/SE/ re-imagines an ancient Ojibway story, the Seven Fires Prophecy, which both predates and predicts first contact with Europeans. A kaleidoscopic experience blending documentary, narrative, and experimental forms, INAATE/SE/ transcends linear colonized history to explore how the prophecy resonates through the generations in their indigenous community within Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With acute geographic specificity, and grand historical scope, the film fixes its lens between the sacred and the profane to pry open the construction of contemporary indigenous identity.
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
In the Araucanía Region, an area marked by historical relations between Mapuche and non-Mapuche people, the shooting of a police officer results in the death of a young Mapuche man. On the other hand, a community member who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison has been on a hunger strike for over one hundred days. In the background, we have the experience of Aniceto Norin, a Longko who has spent five years in prison for the crime of "Terrorist Threat," whose account allows us to understand his thoughts and the impact of assuming his role and his Mapuche identity.
This documentary short is a cinematic recording of Tales from a Prairie Drifter, a stage comedy about the North-West Resistance during the opening of the Canadian West. Highlighting the roles of Louis Riel, the Resistance leader, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and General Middleton, who was sent to quell the uprising, the play defines the First nations and Métis cause more succinctly than many history books. Here, the play is performed by the Regina Globe Theatre before and Indigineous audience of First Nations and Métis, whose reactions are recorded.
Still photographs and narration give an overview of the history of the American Indian.
A young Navajo filmmaker investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents.
The exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth is projected as the most reasonable solution to deal with the economic crisis that plagues Greece. The Greek state has ceded its mining rights over 31.700 ha of land in northern Halkidiki, a region rich in gold, copper and other metals, to the Canadian multinational company Eldorado Gold. However, many of the region’s inhabitants, who have been resisting the construction of a goldmine for years, claim that this investment will cause irreparable damage to the environment and the benefits will be fewer than the losses. “Cassandra’s Treasure” presents a detailed picture of the modern Greek state before and during the crisis period.
ARCTIC SUMMER is a poetic meditation on Tuktoyaktuk, an Indigenous community in the Arctic. The film captures Tuk during one of the last summers before climate change forced Tuk's coastal population to relocate to more habitable land.
This short documentary is a celebration of life on planet Earth. Made from haunting visual images selected from 50 years of NFB productions, the film looks at human beings, their place on earth, and their deep interconnection with all other beings. Evocations of forces that threaten the planet and all its inhabitants also offer avenues for reflection.
In this short documentary, a Musqueam elder rediscovers his Native language and traditions in the city of Vancouver, in the vicinity of which the Musqueam people have lived for thousands of years. Writing the Land captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city - the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a sudden flash of birds in flight and the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory.
The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.
Peter Westerveld, artist and visionary, doesn’t want institutions to resolve the problems linked to earth’s problems. Growing up in Africa, he witnessed the advance of the desert and dedicated himself to finding solutions for the ongoing erosion and desertification of the land. The film follows Peter and the NGO working with him to realise his project; to build contour trenches that capture and store rain water under the surface and replenish the desert land.