VIENNA 2025
Alanis Obomsawin RETROSPECTIVE
Alanis Obomsawin is one of Canada’s first and most influential Indigenous filmmakers. As a director, singer and Abenaki Nation activist, she has been shaping documentary storytelling for over five decades – with an unmistakable voice that is uncompromisingly committed to the rights and self-determination of Indigenous communities.
She sees film as a political tool, a means of resistance against colonial narratives, media distortions and the structural exclusion of Indigenous perspectives. At the centre of her work are the stories, struggles and hopes of Indigenous peoples – told from an authentic, inner perspective.
With great consistency, she resists the dominance of Western perspectives and creates spaces in which voices that have all too often been ignored or distorted are heard. Her films are living chronicles of resistance: they not only preserve oral traditions, but also document the ongoing struggle against colonial violence, state repression and the loss of land and cultural identity.
Obomsawin combines indigenous narrative traditions with interviews, music, drawings and archive material to create a powerful tool of resistance, a medium of political intervention that makes social injustices and the ongoing colonization of Indigenous life realities visible.
Her works are indispensable archives of Indigenous memory and formulate an urgent message of resistance.
Wednesday 24.9., 18:00:
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993, 119min)
In July 1990, a serious conflict broke out in Oka, Québec, between Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) demonstrators, the Québec police and the Canadian army. The trigger is the planned construction of a golf course on Indigenous land. After the Kanien’kéhaka erect a barricade to block access to the construction site, the situation escalates. Violent attempts to evict the protesters are intended to end the protest by force. Alanis Obomsawin documented the 78-day conflict from an Indigenous perspective behind the lines. Her film not only sheds light on the specific events, but also places the conflict in a wider context: as an expression of a systemic, ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights. The multi-award-winning work is now considered a milestone in Indigenous filmmaking and a key document of colonial continuities in Canada.
Wednesday 24.9., 20:30:
Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises (2006, 104min)
Alanis Obomsawin returns to her home village of Odanak, an Abenaki reserve south of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. In her lyrical portrait, she focuses on the Abenaki community living there and their traditional culture of basket weaving and canoe building. She skillfully interweaves the multifaceted history of her people with a critical reflection on contemporary identity and the so-called “status” that legally defines Indigenous belonging. The colonial Indian Act stipulates that children of Indigenous origin can lose their status – and thus their official rights – if their parents marry outside the community. A poetic portrait of the complex past and present of the Abenaki, who once inhabited large parts of what is now New England, the Canadian Maritimes and south-eastern Quebec.
Thursday 25.9, 20:30:
History of Manawan – Part Two (1972, 21min) / Incident at Restigouche (1984, 45min)
Atikamekw elder Cézar Néwashish tells the story of traditional hunting and how it has been changed by the pressures of Western society.
This is followed by a milestone of Indigenous resistance cinema: Incident at Restigouche. In June 1981, the police stormed the Restigouche Mi’kmaq reservation. This was triggered by a dispute over traditional fishing rights, which continues to this day. While the Mi’kmaq caught 6 tons of salmon, sport and industrial fishermen took over 900. Obomsawin reconstructs the events with impressive clarity and confronts the fisheries minister responsible.
Friday 26.9, 18:00
Mother of Many Children (1977) / Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child (1986); total length: 86min
In her first feature-length documentary, Alanis Obomsawin pays tribute to the central role of Indigenous women. Mother of Many Children shows matriarchal cultures in which women pass on stories, language and tradition over generations. This is followed by a harrowing portrait of Indigenous childhood: Richard Cardinal took his own life at the age of 17 – after 28 spells in care institutions. Diary entries, archive material and interviews tell of his longing to be reunited with his family and paint a picture of systemic neglect and brutality.
Friday 26.9, 20:30
Rocks at Whiskey Trench (2000, 105min)
Stories of resistance, strength and perseverance are at the centre of this powerful examination of a dark day in Canadian history. In the summer of 1990, at the height of the Oka conflict, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) women, children and elders fled their community of Kahnawake. A convoy of 75 vehicles was pelted with stones by an angry mob as they attempted to cross the Mercier Bridge into Montreal. The police did not intervene. Rocks at Whiskey Trench reconstructs these traumatic events using witness testimonies, archive footage and historical analysis. The film sheds light on the background to the conflict in Oka, the consequences of centuries of land expropriation and reveals how deeply colonial violence still has an impact today. A moving document about trauma, resilience and the right to self-determination.
Saturday 27.9., 18:00:
Trick or Treaty? (2014, 84min)
In Trick or Treaty?, Alanis Obomsawin takes a critical look at Treaty No. 9, which was concluded in 1905 between the British Crown and the Cree and Ojibwe in Ontario. While the Canadian government sees the treaty as a cession of Indigenous sovereignty, many descendants of the signatories see it as a broken promise: an agreement to share land and resources that was never fulfilled. The film accompanies indigenous leaders on their journey to be heard – in dialog with the government and in protest on the streets. Poignant speeches, archive footage and testimonies from the Idle No More movement interweave to create an engaging document about colonial continuities, cultural self-determination and the courage to retell history. A passionate plea for recognition, self-determination and the end of colonial oppression.
FIRST EDITION
What’s Up Vienna! What’s Up Montreal! stretches beyond the borders of national identities to encourage collaborations between two cities.
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VIENNA: MAY 8-10, 2011
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MONTREAL: JUNE 8, 9, 2010
WINNIPEG: JUNE 11, 12, 2010
PERFORMANCES
JONATHAN PARANT
ANGELICA CASTELLO
dieb13
BILLY ROISZ
DOUGLAS MOFFAT
crys cole
MARTIN BRANDLMAYR
KARL LEMIEUX
DAVID BRYANT
KEVIN DORIA
DIDI BRUCKMAYR
MICHAELA GRILL
TIM HECKER
MARC-ALEXANDRE REINHARDT
CHRISTOF KURZMANN
michel germain
MARTIN TETREAULT
RADIAN
NTSC
STEVE BATES
VIENNA 2011
Debut collaborations include
- The trio of ANGELICA CASTELLO, BILLY ROISZ, and STEVE BATES.
- Filmmaker KARL LEMIEUX and Viennese turntablist dieb 13 in a stripped down duo highlighting connections between light and sound.
- DAVID BRYANT, KEVIN DORIA, and MARTIN BRANDLMAYR in a highly anticipated trio.
FILM AND VIDEO
8. 5. 2011, Austrian Filmmuseum, 40 Augustinerstr.1, 1010 Vienna, 20.30
Film Screenings
Daïchi Saïto | Karl Lemieux
Live Cinema
Karl Lemieux | David Bryant | Kevin Doria | Jonathan Parent
Daïchi Saïto: Chiasmus (2003) 16mm, bw, mono, 8 min
Daïchi Saïto: Chasmic Dance (2004) 16mm, bw, silent, 6 min
Daïchi Saïto: Blind Alley Augury (2006) Super 8, color, silent, 3 min
Daïchi Saïto: All That Rises (2007) 16mm, color, mono, 7 min
Daïchi Saïto: Green Fuse (2008) Super 8, color, silent, 3 min
Daïchi Saïto: Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (2009) 35mm, color, Dolby SR, 10 min
Karl Lemieux: Mamori (2010) 35mm, bw, 5.1 Dolby Digital, 8 min
Karl Lemieux: Mouvement de Lumière/ Motion of Light (2004) 16mm transfer to Digi Beta, bw and color, mono, 8 min
Karl Lemieux: Western Sunburn (2007) Digi Beta, bw, stereo, 10 min
Intermission
Live Cinema
Karl Lemieux: 16mm projectors
David Bryant: guitar, electronic
Kevin Doria: bass, electronic
Jonathan Parent: electronik
Following the film screening the Filmmuseum will be transformed into a space filled with unsettling beautiful images and sounds that will be improvised by Karl Lemieux together with the musicians David Bryant (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, set fire to flames), Kevin Doria (Growing) and Jonathan Parent (Fly Pan Am). Using four 16mm projectors as his instruments Lemieux will transform the film loops with mechanical and chemical means. Together with the melancholic fragility of the music this creates a hauntingly dark and levitational atmosphere which will open your eyes, ears and hearts.
Screenings at Echoraum:
DOUGLAS MOFFAT – Vienna Phonograph
Vienna
Phonograph attempts to lay the rough surfaces of one landscape over the
other – revealing contrasts of micro-topography, texture and sound. In a
previous work Montreal Phonograph, the surfaces of the city were
recorded with the aid of an all-terrain record stylus. The recordings,
cut into a vinyl record, reduced the surface of the city to a scale that
could be played on a standard turntable. A similar transmutation is
planned for Vienna. Following the contours of the Ringstraße inwards to
the centre pin of the Pestsäule, the all-terrain stylus will be employed
a second time – to lift up the surface layer of sound from the inner
circles of the city. An audio visual performance will bring together
these two surfaces – Montreal and Vienna. A vinyl record of the muddy
surfaces of Montreal are played back then mixed against the rough
scrapings of Vienna. Side by side, two point-of-view video recordings
follow the events as each city is traversed in twelve minutes.
VINCENT CHEVALIER, COVER
This
video explores the play between two definitions for the word “cover”.
Chevalier performs a version of a song by rock singer PJ Harvey by
hugging a set of speakers against his body while the music plays. This
gesture changes the sonic character of the music to produce a “cover” of
the original song. It also serves to stifle some of Harvey’s extreme
vocals. By inhabiting this space between between repetition and
protection, Chevalier raises questions regarding the nature of
performance, authenticity, and control within musical production.
(HD Video, sound, 5:00,
2010)
DANIEL OLSON, Noisemaker
A
somewhat defective motor taken from a toy record player shot in
extreme close-up and recorded through a contact microphone, transforming
a small domestic object into something that looks and sounds more like
a large industrial apparatus.
(1999, colour, stereo sound, 7:00)
DIANE MORIN, Effondrements
In commenting on Effondrements, the artist speaks of events. They are certainly tragic, as the object vanishes as soon as it appears. But they are also disappointing – the anticipated destruction of the light – revealed object never comes about. Despite the explosion, nothing blows up, nor is anything destroyed. In an exemplary photographic moment, the explosion here serve only to make visible an object lying still in the darkness and to reveal it as an image of that object disappearing before our eyes. In Effondrements, Diane Morin clearly demonstrates her penchant for the non-spectacular. She turns our attention toward a series of anti-events, where a silent wait in obscurity leads to a tale of repeated vanishings. – Nicole Gingras, translation Ron Ross
MONTREAL and WINNIPEG – 2010
Debut collaborations include
- Montréal’s HYENA HIVE and DIDI BRUCKMAYR in an all out meltdown (Montréal).
- Montréal’s MARTIN TÉTREAULT, one of the world’s premiere improvising turntablists, will perform for the first time as a duet with dieb 13.
- Austrian artists MICHAELA GRILL and BILLY ROISZ partner their unique video languages in a debut performance with TIM HECKER.
- Winnipeg’s MICHEL GERMAIN in a trio setting with Radian’s MARTIN BRANDLMAYR and turntablist dieb 13.
- crys cole brings her subtle electronics to the table with Christof Kurzmann’s laptop and clarinet excursions.
FILM AND VIDEO
MONTREAL JUNE 8 – PROGRAMME 1: EXCESSIVE BODIES
The obsession with the naked body and all its secretions runs throughout the history of Austrian avantgarde filmmaking. From Vienna’s Actionist movement where the body served as provocative tool to demolish a conservative society to new tendencies in performance art where the male nude is recontextualized in a postfeminist discourse up to digital disfigurations of the video material itself, this programme assembles works that will make your body shiver!
MONTREAL JUNE 9 – PROGRAMME 2: THE MYSTERY OF PERCEPTION
chronomops Tina Frank 2005, 2 min, video / Art & Revolution Ernst Schmidt Jr. 1968, 2 min, 16mm / *1 Albert Sackl 1997, 2min 30, 16mm / remote…remote… VALIE EXPORT: 1973, 12min, 16mm / 10/65 Selfmutilation Kurt Kren 1965, 5 min 30, 16mm / my personality hates me! Didi Bruckmayr, Michael Strohmann 2007, 5 min, video / ragtag Billy Roisz: AVVA:, 2006, 5 min, video
The curiosity about what constitutes a filmic image is the focal point of the works in this program. Poetic yet analytical reworkings of Hollywood films, found-footage extravaganzas and reductionism to the smallest filmic component possible: pure absence and presence of light. Be prepared to see the world differently!
passage à l’acte Martin Arnold 1993, 12 min, 16mm / Outer Space Peter Tscherkassky 1999, 10 min, 16mm / trans Michaela Grill, Martin Siewert 2003, 9 min, video / <frame> [n:ja] 2002, 5 min, video / Arnulf Rainer Peter Kubelka 1960, 6 min 30, 16mm / Tradition is the Handling on of Fire, Not the Worship of Ashes Gustav Deutsch 1999, 1 min, video
WINNIPEG JUNE 11 – PROGRAMME 1: EXCESSIVE BODIES
WINNIPEG JUNE 12 – PROGRAMME 2: THE MYSTERY OF PERCEPTION
