Alanis Obomsawin has spent decades documenting the stories and struggles of Aboriginal people throughout Canada. She proudly speaks of her age (82 years), and delights in the changes she's witnessing from younger generations of activists and educators who she captures in her films.
Her latest project is "Trick Or Treaty?," building upon issues discussed in several of her other projects, including 2013's celebrated "Hi-Ho Mistahey!" Returning once again to the Toronto Film Festival, an event that has long been a showcase for her work, this latest film is challenging, moving and at times poetic and beautiful.
Moviefone Canada spoke to Alanis by phone from her home in Quebec.
Moviefone Canada: How did the project start? Were you attending some of the demonstrations and decided that it would make a good film, or did it start way before then?
Alanis Obomsawin: It's been going on for a while because I've been in James Bay a lot on the Ontario side since 2010. I made two other films, "The People of the Kattawapiskak River" and "Hi-Ho Mistahey!" This film is like a continuation.
I interviewed the Grand Chief Stan Louttit, who was working so hard in terms of using conferences on Treaty Number 9, and he was very concerned about educating not only our own people but also the rest of the country about what the treaty was. Most people in general when you talk about treaties, they think you're crazy, that's an old thing, it's not alive anymore, but it's quite the contrary. It really affects people to this day. [It] was signed in 1905 and 1906 and then later on in 1929 and 1930, yet to this day, the people have been very affected by this particular treaty.
Did you find something in the verbiage of the treaty or even in the way the government deals with the treaties in contemporary ways that changes your own perceptions?
It's very difficult because it gets very upsetting when you see the naiveté of the people that were used and how they were tricked into signing something that they could not read. They were told, they signed on what the explanation of it was, when it was wrong, what they told them. It was quite the contrary in the writing. That's what is most important.
Chief Louttit is such a presence on screen.
Doctor Louttit died a few months ago. I was devastated, and he's not going to be there to see this. I knew that he would be very happy. It's heartbreaking. He cared so much for all of his people. Since 2010, I've seen him in many places, doing some conferences or court cases or all sorts of things. He was always there, with his people. I just think, oh my god, what a loss for these people to not have him anymore.
One thing your film does is give voice to those not often heard by wide audiences.
I think that there's a need for people to hear these voices. I think personally, that Canadians are not bad people. I think most people are tired, they want to see justice being made. Even people who are rotten or who are against the Indians, by looking at the film are going to have a different attitude, are going to understand something that they didn't before.
It's important for teaching, especially teachers who want to teach about the making of treaties. It's a very good example of how it was done and why it was done that way. That needs to be understood by all.
At the end you use a poem that speaks of the 7th generation. Can you discuss its inclusion?
I remember even in the '60s, when we became citizens of our country, it was a big thing, that's when we started to organize and we started traveling and meeting each other. This was a prophecy that we were hearing about: wise people have said that the 7th generation would come, it would be young people and they would save the people. Since 1960, time over time, people said this is the 7th generation because we're all fighting and we're all going to make changes. It's been incredible, the changes I've seen in the last 40 years. But I'm saying, this time, it's really the 7th generation.
When you see these walkers, all the way from Whapmagoostui all the way to Parliament Hill, and those young people they really talk ... and you see and feel this and you say, we're going to a different place now.
Do you pick out favourites from your film career?
When I look at a film, I also have another film in my brain because I know what I went through making it. It's a different world and they are all very dear to me because it's been like this for many years. It hasn't changed and I'm very lucky because I am still healthy, I'm 82. I'm just so passionate so I'm going to do as much as I can while I can.
Were you at every event, or do you have a team of people you send out and then you help collect it? No, I'm at every event. [We shoot with] one single camera -- we couldn't afford two cameras! We had a couple of days with the walkers, they were walking in snow and slush and were freezing and it was raining and I was there the whole time.
There are those who feel that there's a danger for the documentarian to become too close to their subjects.
I don't mind if they say that, and probably sometimes it's true. I just feel these things. It's not because I'm a filmmaker that I'm going to feel different about the actual story.
Yet at the same time, you do not make "you" the central focus of your story the way other documentarians do. Is that something that you've ever done, making you the centre of your story?
No. It's not me, it's the voice of the people, I spend hours listening to the people.
Have you shown the film to members of the community?
Not yet, and I'm going to do that, but most probably I hear that TIFF is going to have it on YouTube the same time that the premiere is being shown, so everybody will be able to look at it at the same time.
What does TIFF mean to you?
TIFF is a very special festival. I am very happy that they have taken this film again this year. It's a good place for the people to be present there, and I think it's going to give a respect and prestige to what the film is about.
Despite the historical negativity, you remain optimistic?
I am. It's even more than optimistic. You see the minds of young people starting to think like old people.
I don't even want to say hopeful, because it's a bigger word than that, what's happening amongst the people. It's bigger. The language that I hear, people who are 17, 18 years old, 20 years old, talking, and how they're really trying to find out more about their own tradition. Not only that, they are applying it to their everyday life and so the saving of our people in terms of the bad stuff that has happened.
I really believe that the young people now are the ones that are going to make a difference. They are the ones that are saying no to all of this stuff. I am so excited and so confident about how they're going around like missionaries, talking about their own people and talking about their respect for their ancestors, how they walked and how hard it was and the respect of the land.
The land is speaking to all of us but when you hear young people talking like that, to say I feel my ancestors when I'm walking on the land, it's so beautiful. You know that you are going to a different time and it's going to be better.
I'm not saying that everything will be perfect or that there is still not going to be some horrifying story, but we're going towards a way that our people are helping themselves.
It's through the young voices that I hear incredible things. It's really poetry. I just listen to them and say oh my god, this is the prophecy that's coming true.
"Trick or Treaty" is screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
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