2 Quotes & Sayings By Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin is a Cree filmmaker and ethnobotanist born in the small town of Lac-Simon, about an hour and a half north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She received her Bachelor's degree in Film and Literature from the University of Manitoba and began her career as a documentary filmmaker working for CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) in the 1970s. Her first full length film, '", was released in 1979. The film documents the traditional life of the Cree people and speaks to the central issue of the destruction of indigenous culture
It won numerous awards including an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. In 1984 her second film, "", won eleven Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture and Best Director. It documents a protest by women to save their wilderness and was awarded Best Documentary at the Academy Awards.
She also produced two other films: "", which won four Genie Awards in 1987, and "", which won three Genie Awards in 1988. In 1990 she received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. In 1999 she was selected as a member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor. In 2009 she received the Order of Manitoba from the province.
In 2014 she became a Member of the Order of Quebec, one of that country's highest civilian honors. To date Alanis Obomsawin has made over 170 films that have been nominated for five Academy Awards, forty-five Emmy Awards, sixty-nine Genie Awards, nineteen Canadian Oscars, three British Academy Film Awards and many others world wide including Best Documentary Feature at the International Film Festival in Palm Beach . The Cree Nation awarded Alanis Obomsawin with an honorary doctorate from Yorkton Regional Collegiate Institute in 2013.