Header

Episode 5

A PLACE TO STAND: Authorship and Activism in YOU ARE ON INDIAN LAND

In 1969, Mohawk residents of Akwesasne organized a blockade at the Cornwall Island border crossing, in protest of Canada’s enforcement of customs duties and to assert their cross-border rights rooted in the Jay Treaty of 1794. You Are on Indian Land, made within the National Film Board’s Challenge for Change program by the Indian Film Crew, embeds the camera in the midst of the action, refusing the posture of documentary objectivity. In this video essay, Stephen Broomer traces how director Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell and his collaborators turned state-sponsored documentary tools to activist ends, exposing the gap between being represented on film and being recognized by the state.

Creators

  • Stephen Broomer is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and film preservationist. He is the founder of the Black Zero Film Collection, restoring and publishing Canadian experimental cinema. His films have screened at Anthology Film Archives, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Lincoln Center and the Canadian Film Institute. He teaches in the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.