The Museum of Modern Art is presenting a retrospective of the films of Alanis Obomsawin, the renown Canadian documentarian who has chronicled the history and struggles of the First Nations of Canada. The filmmaker will introduce and discuss her films from May 14 through 18.

Obomsawin, born in New Hampshire in 1932, is a member of the Abenaki Nation, which originally spanned from New England northward to Quebec. While growing up on the Odanak reservation (located northeast of Montreal), she became deeply absorbed in the history, traditional stories, and songs of her ancestors. She began her career as a singer, writer, and storyteller. In 1971 she made Christmas at Moose Factory, a short animated film about Indian children in residential schools, and since then she has worked with the National Film Board of Canada to make more than 30 documentaries on First Nations people and issues affecting their traditions, customs, and way of life. The well-researched films are compilations of interviews, drawings, songs and music.

Obomsawin first covered the conflicts over land and rights in Canada with Incident at Restigouche (1984). Her acclaimed film Kanehsatake: 270 years of Resistance (1993) is about the Mohawk protest against the expansion of a golf course into their sacred burial lands.

In May, 2008, Obomsawin will receive the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement, one of Canada’s highest honors. The National Film Board of Canada is releasing a DVD box set of four documentaries on the Oka crisis of 1990, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. The box set will be available in the MoMA Stores and at www.nfb.ca.