Waban-aki: People from Where the Sun Rises
Directed by Alanis Obomsawin | Documentary | 2006 | 104 min
Film Source: Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada
Yvonne M’Sadoques rocks forward in her chair. She’s lived in the Abenaki community of Odanak for over a century – and has no shortage of stories to tell.
“The priest would march into our home and order us to stop dancing. We were going to the devil, he said.” She pauses, a humorous glint in her eye. “But you know – I don’t really believe in the devil. Do you?”
M’Sadoques is in conversation with Alanis Obomsawin, another of Odanak’s proud daughters – and one of Canada’s leading documentary filmmakers. Obomsawin’s illustrious career comes full circle with Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises. Having dedicated nearly four decades to chronicling the lives of Canada’s First Nations, she returns to the village where she was raised to craft a lyric account of her own people.
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