Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) will be at the 27th Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) with two feature films, including this year’s closing film, Ninan Auassat: Nous, les enfants (Ninan Auassat: We, the Children, NFB), by Abenaki filmmaker Kim O’Bomsawin. Wilfred Buck (Door Number 3 Productions/NFB), by Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson, will also be screening at RIDM, where it will be having its Quebec premiere. Both titles are in the Magnus Isacsson Competition. The short film Nalujuk Night (NFB, 2021), by Inuk visual artist Jennie Williams, will be shown as part of the Doc-to-Doc program, where directors whose latest projects are screening at RIDM discuss films they’d like audiences to discover. RIDM will take place from November 20 to December 1, 2024.
Closing film: Ninan Auassat: We, the Children by Kim O’Bomsawin
Ninan Auassat: Nous, les enfants (Ninan Auassat: We, the Children) by Kim O’Bomsawin (93 min) – Quebec premiere
Produced at the NFB by Mélanie Brière, Nathalie Cloutier and Colette Loumède
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/ninan_auassat_en
- The film will screen in competition as it makes its Quebec premiere during the festival’s closing night on November 30 (screening by invitation only) at the Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin Cinema, with the filmmaker in attendance. This will be followed at 10:30 p.m. by a concert at the Cinémathèque Québécoise featuring the electro-pop/soul sounds of Huron-Wendat singer-songwriter Eadsé, presented by the NFB and RIDM and open to all. A second screening of the film, open to the public, is scheduled for December 1 at 3 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
- Ninan Auassat celebrates the power and vitality of Indigenous youth. Shot over more than six years, the film brings us the moving stories of three groups of children from three different Indigenous nations—Atikamekw, Eeyou Cree and Innu. Filmed from “a child’s eye-view” and without adult voices and “experts” on young people, the film reveals the dreams of a new generation poised to take flight. The feature film recently received the Tides Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
- Kim O’Bomsawin is an award-winning Abenaki documentary filmmaker and sociologist who’s deeply passionate about sharing the stories of Indigenous Peoples. Her recent credits include the feature-length documentary Call Me Human (Je m’appelle Humain), honoured at the Gémeaux Awards in 2020, and her series Telling Our Story, shown in TIFF’s Primetime program in 2023.
Ninan Auassat: We, the Children will have its theatrical release in Quebec in spring 2025.