The filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin is this year’s recipient of the Edward MacDowell Medal, MacDowell announced on Sunday.
Obomsawin, 90, a member of the Abenaki Nation, is the first female filmmaker to win the prize. “I’m very touched by the fact that I was chosen to receive this beautiful honor,” Obomsawin said in a phone interview.
Over the span of five decades, Obomsawin has created more than 50 films, including “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance,” a 1993 documentary depicting the Mohawk protest against the expansion of a golf course into sacred lands and “Trick or Treaty,” a 2014 film focused on a complex treaty between First Nations people and the Crown.
Jesse Wente, the board chair of Canada’s Council of the Arts and member of the Serpent River First Nation, first watched Obomsawin’s 1984 documentary “Incident at Restigouche” at age 10. He will introduce her during the July award ceremony.
Obomsawin’s work, which puts her subject’s voices first and challenges global systems established by colonialism, helped start a movement. “Between her and Merata Mita, they are the grandmothers of Indigenous cinema globally,” Wente said.
Her win follows changes to the organization’s policies, including the acknowledgment that the residency program takes place on First Nations land, home of the Western Abenaki people. And in 2020, MacDowell dropped “colony” from its name, in response to a petition from staff members.
“Her canon of film work has really elevated the modern Indigenous experience,” said Bird Runningwater, a television and film producer who was a part of the medal selection panel.
Obomsawin is the fifth filmmaker to receive the award after Stan Brakhage, Chuck Jones, Les Blank and David Lynch.
