Movies: Indigenous

Towards the end of the 16th century, the Spanish conquerors living in the New World faced a serious problem: the evangelization of the indigenous people, who did not understand or accept Christianity due to their unshakable faith in their own religio...

Three Alaska Native women work to save their endangered language, Kodiak Alutiiq, and ensure the future of their culture while confronting their personal demons. With just 41 fluent Native speakers remaining, mostly Elders, some estimate their langua...

A 12-year-old Congolese girl is taken to the mfinda, a primordial forest teeming with spirits, gods and ancestors. There she meets up with another young girl from a different time and together they set out to find the magical Nkisi, vessels that hold...

When gang leader Rob Brown is sentenced to prison for a fifth time, he must confront his role in bringing violent drug culture into his beloved American Indian community in northern Minnesota. As Rob reckons with his past, his seventeen-year-old prot...

Bolivia's Climbing Cholitas - a group of indigenous women scaling the Andes Mountains, some of the highest peaks in the world. Shot in Bolivia for Vogue Latin America and Vogue Mexico's 20th anniversary cover story....

In New France before the British Conquest, Marie, an indigenous slave, serves the local surgeon. Her daily life of household chores is bleak and alienating. The encounter with a young girl she presumes to be her child will give her motivation to unde...

Angel, a once vibrant beautiful Cree woman, becomes weary and spiritless after enduring viscous spiritual, physical, and emotional abuse from her partner Earl....

In the summer of 2000, federal fishery officers appeared to wage war on the Mi'gmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest c...

As a sea nomad, Hook grew up with the ocean as his universe. Now he must make a courageous voyage to salvage the remains of his dying culture...

Acoustic Ocean is an artistic exploration of the sonic ecology of marine life in the North Atlantic. Located on the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway, the video centers on the performance of a marine-biologist diver who is using a life-size model of...

The story of Orisbela, a young and religious woman who comes from Portugal to Brazil to marry Francisco de Albuquerque, a rude sugar-cane plantation owner, in 1570....

The big bad cats are the villains/Indians, and the little mice are the settlers going west in their little covered wagons, and the Indians are on a rampage about it. Things look dark indeed for the settlers when the likes of Buffalo Bill, General Cus...

The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone....

The last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region's massive deforestation. Living deep in the rainforest, Pakyî and Tamand...

An Indigenous teenage boy fights through distorting realities as a family secret unravels....

She Draws a Circle reflects on the work of generations of women to interrupt cycles of violence and oppression, looking to the ways in which our spiritual connections to the land and one another help us to hold space for regenerative healing, br...

A a psychological drama about Lydia, a young Innu woman who works at her father’s convenience store in a small First Nations community in rural Quebec. One night, as she prepares to close up shop, a masked robber enters the store and holds her at gun...

In an enchanted forest, a young apprentice struggles with the harsh expectations of his hunter mentor, who hunts elves for survival....

This documentary digs into the stories of Indigenous women and families to reclaim their Indian Status through their fight for the elimination of sex-discrimination in the Indian Act. It highlights the impacts of the law on individuals, families and ...

For the Suruí, an indigenous people in western Brazil, there was a lot at stake in the 2022 presidential elections. Under incumbent President Bolsonaro, logging and mining companies were given free rein in their territory. His opponent Lula, on the o...