Agency - English program:.Ontario Centre. Agency:.Produced by the National Film Board of Canada in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation.

Writer, Katerina Cizek ; director, Katerina Cizek ; editor, Katerina Cizek ; producer, Gerry Flahive ; cinematographer, Philippe Amiguet ; animator, Charuvi Agrawal ; sound recordist, Raymond Marcoux ; sound editor, Steve Payne ; re-recording mixer, Dustin Harris ; original music composer, Anne Bourne ; original music performer, Anne Bourne ; music recording, Philip Strong ; research, Katherine Kasirer ; executive producer, Silva Basmajian.

Recorded 2008.

Alanis Obomsawin was born during a solar eclipse: an event that foreshadowed her destiny as a storyteller. Katerina Cizek's portrait of this extraordinary artist, layered with animation, music and image, beautifully recalls Alanis Obomsawin's work. Obomsawin began her career as a singer, visiting schools and prisons. "I had no idea about filmmaking," she says. "Never even thought about it." It was her interest in children that prompted a visit to a residential school in James Bay, where she asked the children to tell their own stories and make drawings to accompany them. The film, Christmas at Moose Factory (1971), launched her career with the National Film Board of Canada. Over the next thirty years, Ms. Obomsawin would document some of the most startling events in Canadian history including the armed standoff between the Canadian Army and Mohawk warriors in Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). Alanis Obomsawin's films span a broad cross section of social issues, but they are always intensely and immediately human. "For me, a real documentary is when you're really listening to somebody; they are the ones that will tell you what the story is, not you."   .

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Description based on online resource; title from title screen (National Film Board of Canada, viewed 2023-08-10).