Alanis Obomsawin's Trick or Treaty? to screen at TIFF 2014

Alanis Obomsawin has made a career of documenting history but today she's making history of her own. The 82-year-old veteran Abenaki filmmaker will become the first indigenous filmmaker to screen in the Masters programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"Alanis is exactly the type of filmmaker that the Masters programme was made for." said Jesse Wente, Director of Film Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 

"The Masters program is there to identify filmmakers who throughout their career really altered the landscape of cinema. Alanis is certainly one of Canada’s great documentary filmmakers but in a larger context she is really the grandmother of indigenous cinema all over the world."

Obomsawin's film Trick or Treaty? will debut at the festival in Toronto in September. The documentary follows the journey of First Nations in northern Ontario in their quest for affirmation of their treaty rights. 

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The announcement was made at the today at a press conference in Toronto unveiling the lineup of Canadian films at this year's festival.

Obomsawin has directed​​ more than 40 films over 40 years chronicling the lives of aboriginal people in Canada. Her first film, "Christmas at Moose Factory" debuted in 1971 and her most famous work "Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance followed the Oka crisis in the summer of 1990.

Obomsawin has screened at TIFF numerous times times including her latest film, "Hi Ho Mistahey!" last year.  

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