Alanis Obomsawin and Jason Ryle in Conversation

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Co-presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Capture Photography Festival as part of the 2023 Capture Speaker Series.

Join Abenaki filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin and film producer and curator Jason Ryle for a special in-person conversation about her career, which spans across education, music, documentary cinema and activism, and has mobilized Indigenous voices and ideas to transform society.

For more than five decades, Obomsawin has created a model of Indigenous cinema that privileges the voices of the people whose stories she tells, and challenges the core assumptions of a world shaped by colonialism. This talk is co-presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Capture Photography Festival as part of the 2023 Capture Speaker Series.

The talk will coincide with the opening of The Children Have to Hear Another Story: Alanis Obomsawin. Visitors can come early and see the exhibition before the talk begins or explore after it concludes.

TICKETS

Tickets are available for purchase in advance online at a cost of $10 for Gallery Members, and $15 for the general public in addition to the cost of admission to the Gallery ($29).

• $10 for Gallery Members
• $15 plus general admission to the Gallery ($29) for the general public

*Please note that Non-Members are required to purchase a General Admission to the Gallery to attend this event.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most respected artists, Alanis Obomsawin is an activist filmmaker and producer at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), where she has worked since 1967. She was born in 1932 in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and spent her early years in Quebec, on the Odanak reserve, whose songs and stories she continues to tell. Her filmmaking practice is deeply committed to the social justice of her people and explores issues of human significance to all. She is also a lifelong vegetarian.

Obomsawin began her artistic life as a singer, writer and storyteller in 1960. Her performances, which include stories and songs in Abenaki, English and French, have been presented in universities, residential schools, prisons, museums, art centres and folk festivals across North America and Europe to aid humanitarian causes. In 1988, she released her singular musical album Bush Lady, featuring traditional Abenaki songs as well as original compositions, all told with feminist fervour. The album was remastered and rereleased by Constellation Records thirty years later.

Jason Ryle is a producer and curator currently based in Toronto. He is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation, Manitoba. Ryle was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE from July 2010 to June 2020. In this capacity, Ryle oversaw all operational and artistic activities of the annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. As an independent producer, his current projects include the TV series AMPLIFY (for APTN), the documentary feature SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO (directed by Tasha Hubbard), and the VR series SUNALIMAT (National Film Board & Parks Canada). Ryle is also the International Programmer, Indigenous Cinema for TIFF.

ACCESSIBILITY

The Vancouver Art Gallery commits to providing equitable access to everyone. We actively support accessibility, anti-racism, LGBTQ2S+ inclusion and encourage diversity in our staff, visitors, volunteers and programming. We cultivate a safer space where all voices are heard, valued and represented. The Gallery stands against hatred, discrimination, racism, homophobia and transphobia.

ASL is available upon request with seven business days advance notice. We will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made outside of that window of time.

If you have any requests, concerns or questions regarding accessibility at this event, please contact Stephanie Bokenfohr by email: sbokenfohr@vanartgallery.bc.ca or by phone at (604) 662-4700.