16-05-2025
Wabanaki film fest in Portland aims to tell the stories of Indigenous peoples
May 16—Mali Obomsawin would like Mainers to be more aware of the Indigenous people here and their legacy.
Raised in Farmington, Obomsawin is a bassist who has toured the country. She's also composed music for films and TV projects that help tell the stories of native peoples, including the 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary "Sugarcane" and the popular FX comedy-drama series "Reservation Dogs," set in the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma.
She's also one of the organizers of the first-ever Wabanaki Film Festival, set for Sunday at the Portland Museum of Art. The free program includes five films — three involving Maine filmmakers — as well as panel discussions. Obomsawin is hoping the event will bring attention to Wabanaki filmmakers and artists, and their perspectives, and raise awareness of the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Maine and elsewhere.
"We're not represented here the way tribal nations are in other cities around the country. You go to Minneapolis or Santa Fe or Tulsa, and the footprint of the Indigenous people of that place is really evident," said Obomsawin, 29, who lives in Portland and is a member of the Abenaki Nation at Odanak. "We're working to change that, particularly right now when the Indigenous community nationwide is having a bit of a renaissance. "
Obomsawin's co-organizer is Penobscot artist Lokotah Sanborn of Portland. The two also worked on one of the short films screening at the festival, "Otherworld," which was directed by Sanborn with narrative written by Obomsawin. It's a poetic documentary about an island off the coast of Maine, where the Abenaki first came into contact with the English in 1605. It later became the seasonal home of painter Andrew Wyeth and was carefully managed by his wife, Betsy, in hopes it would inspire his art.
"My film is about Abenaki connection to place, presence, and continuance despite historic and ongoing genocide. It is also about the uncanny synthetic nature of colonialism in how it curates and shapes Indigenous lands," said Sanborn.
The film festival will start at 11 a.m. Sunday with refreshments, mingling, followed by greetings and introductions. The first screening, at 11:45 a.m., is of the 1993 film "Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance." It's a documentary about an armed stand-off between protestors and police and military forces in Quebec, Canada, over a proposed golf course on Mohawk lands. The film was directed by Alanis Obomsawin, a cousin of Mali Obomsawin.
After a discussion period and a break, three short Wabanaki films will be shown at 2:45 p.m. "Putep Qotatokot-te Elewestag (The Whale Was Speaking), is a poetry film voiced and written by Mihku Paul, touching on climate change, sea life and human survival. "Bay of Herons" by Jared Lank is about a Mi'kmaq man reflecting on seeing his homelands destroyed. Following the third film, "Otherworld," there will be a Q&A with filmmakers.
At 3:30 p.m., there will be a screening of the 2012 film "Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America," followed by a Q&A and a panel discussion.
Sanborn said the films in the festival were chosen to illustrate the solidarity between Indigenous people across the Americas. The two feature-length documentaries, for instance, explore Western imperialism, colonial extraction and capitalist dominance, he said.
"I hope that audiences take away a better understanding of immigration and ongoing fights for Indigenous sovereignty and how these issues inter-relate," Sanborn said.
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