CNYPG welcomes Alanis Obomsawin
with her films "Our Nationhood" and "Is the Crown at War with Us?"

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, Friday, April 2
Ithaca College, Ithaca College, NY, Monday, April 5
Cornell Cinema, Ithaca, NY, Tuesday, April 6:
SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, Wednesday, April 7
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, Thursday, April 8

The Central New York Programmers Group is pleased to host Alanis Obomsawin on a tour of five New York venues. Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation, is one of Canada’s most distinguished documentary filmmakers and has made over 20 uncompromising documentaries on issues affecting Aboriginal people in Canada.

Our Nationhood chronicles the determination of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq people in the face of yet another standoff with the Quebec government, this time over access to logging on their ancestral territory. “With multiple strands of engagement in the Mi’gmaq language, French, and English, Obomsawin presents the ancestral voice of reason amidst Québécois assertions of colonial authority. What resonates most are the voices and images of the children who are the beneficiaries of this resistance and the fight for acknowledgment of inherent rights as first nations.” (N. Bird Runningwater, Sundance Film Festival)

Is the Crown at War with Us? is a powerful and painstakingly researched look at the conflict over fishing rights between the Mi'gmaq people of Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), New Brunswick and their non-native neighors. The Mi'gmaq had been fishing the waters of Miramichi Bay since time immemorial, and their right to do so had been upheld in a landmark 1999 Supremem Court decision. But when the people of Esgenoopetitj tried to excercise their long-standing teaty rights, they foundthemselves under attack by non-native commercial fishermen, and harassed by officials fromt eh Department of Fisheries and Oceans.