Movies by indigenous filmmakers, new books, and more
November 19, 2020
Check out these items in our collections made by or featuring indigenous filmmakers, musicians, and authors, and locate resources to find more work and do your own research.
Browse films
Meet the directors. Browse this list of filmmakers, from Alethea Arnaquq-Baril to Raymond Yakeleya — or view films by title — to find full-length features and shorts via the National Film Board of Canada’s free online archive. (If you can’t access a certain item, such as Arnaquq-Baril’s “Angry Inuk,” you might be able to find it on U-M’s Kanopy site.)
Honor music icons. Learn about rock musicians like Link Wray, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Charley Patton, Jesse Ed Davis and more in “Rumble,” a documentary about the overlooked influence of indigenous musicians on North American popular music. Stream on Kanopy.
Feel the tension. Request “Rhymes for Young Ghouls,” by Jeff Barnaby, or see “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner,” from Zacharias Kunuk, the first known feature film ever to be written, directed, and acted in the Inuktitut language.
Consider the past. The full “We Shall Remain” series from PBS, spanning 300 years of pivotal moments in U.S. history from a Native American perspective, is also available to stream on Kanopy.
Read a new(ish) book
Get cozy indoors and check out Waubgeshig Rice’s gripping novel, “Moon of the Crusted Snow,” via OverDrive, and be wary of the next winter storm.
Read Terese Marie Mailhot’s memoir, “Heart Berries,” her coming-of-age story on the Seabird Island Band in the Pacific Northwest.
Giggle along with Tiffany Midge with her collection of short essays, “Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s.”
And think about the naming of, and our relationship with, other living beings with scientist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer in “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.”
Do your research
Explore our Indigenous Resources research guide to find library databases, journals, and other resources of interest, mainly pertaining to communities indigenous to Turtle Island (North America).
by Emily Buckler
