Finding Manoomin
2024 · 27m · Documentary · History
An Ojibwe woman explores the history and spiritual importance of manoomin to the Mille Lacs Band by interviewing tribal elders, visiting a museum, harvesting wild rice by canoe, and preserving her people's legacy for her son.
More Like This
Nuuca
2018 · ★ 7
In this evocative meditation, a disturbing link is made between the resource extraction industries’ exploitation of the land and violence inflicted on Indigenous women and girls. Or, as one young woman testifies, “Just as the land is being used, these women are being used.”
More info →
Taking Alcatraz
2015
A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembrances, archival newsreel footage and photographs.
More info →Essence of Healing: The Journey of American Indian Nurses
2017
Essence of Healing is a documentary exploring the life journeys of 14 American Indian nurses - their experiences growing up, their experiences in nursing school, and their experiences on the job. They are part of a larger story - a historical line of care and compassion that has run through hundreds of indigenous tribes for thousands of years.
More info →
A Place For All: MN Community Art Centers
2026
Explore the boundless nature of creativity in Central Minnesota. From local galleries to hands-on workshops, see how Community Art Centers create a unique environment where everyone is invited to participate, create, and belong. This is the first installment of Lakeland PBS's "Up North Arts"
More info →
Skydancer
2011
For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.
More info →
Trudell
2005 · ★ 5.7
A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word performances, and politics.
More info →
The Main Stream
2002 · ★ 7
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.
More info →
Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe
1985 · ★ 7
Examines the impact a century of struggling for survival has on a native people. It weaves the Crow tribe's turbulent past with modern-day accounts from Robert Yellow-tail, a 97-year-old Crow leader and a major reason for the tribe's survival. Poverty and isolation combine with outside pressures to undermine the tribe, but they resist defeat as "Contrary Warriors," defying the odds.
More info →
As Long as the Rivers Run
1971
Examines the violence and civil disobedience leading up to the hallmark decision in U.S. v. Washington, with particular reference to the Nisqually Indians of Frank's Landing in Washington.
More info →Indian Rights for Indian Women
2018
Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.
More info →
Hochelaga, Land of Souls
2017 · ★ 4.8
Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium.
More info →
Dislocation Blues
2017 · ★ 5.8
Filmed during the 2016 Standing Rock protests in South Dakota, Sky Hopinka's Dislocation Blues offers a portrait of the movement and its water protectors, refuting grand narratives and myth-making in favour of individual testimonials.
More info →