As Alanis Obomsawin's creative home for nearly 60 years, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is proud to highlight the presentation of the exhibition The Children Have to Hear Another Story at MoMA PS1 in New York, after presentations in Berlin, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. This retrospective is dedicated to the work of Abenaki documentarian, activist and singer Alanis Obomsawin, acclaimed as one of the world's greatest Indigenous filmmakers and still going strong after more than five decades of filmmaking. She has received countless honours in Canada and internationally, including a film series shown at MoMA in 2008, and returns to New York this spring for this celebration of her lifework.
The Children Have to Hear Another Story opens at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, on March 27 and runs through to August 25, 2025. A public celebration of the exhibition will be held on Saturday, March 29.
After highly successful showings at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the exhibition is currently running in Montreal until January 26, 2025, at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) temporary space in Place Ville Marie.
Quotes
"What a pleasure it is to know that the voices of our Nations are being heard around the world! For many generations, our people were reduced to silence. I am very moved that MoMA PS1 has opened its doors to me. The first public concert I gave was in 1960 at Town Hall, as part of a program organized by Folkways. It is a gift for me to be welcomed in New York once again, 65 years later. Our First Nations have undergone enormous changes. Today, everything is possible. I'm very happy to live in Canada, and to see the number of institutions, in every field, opening their doors to our Nations. Thank you to those who provide everyone with an opportunity to speak. For me, the sound of the word is sacred." - Alanis Obomsawin
"We're thrilled to present this retrospective of groundbreaking filmmaker, artist and activist Alanis Obomsawin at MoMA PS1," said Connie Butler, The Agnes Gund Director, MoMA PS1. "The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the full breadth of Obomsawin's career in New York. We're pleased to continue PS1's commitment to fostering sustained dialogue on global issues surrounding Indigeneity and land justice, building on the success of recent presentations by artists including Melissa Cody, Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, and Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds."
About the exhibition at MoMA PS1
Organized by decade, this retrospective features a survey of Alanis Obomsawin's multidisciplinary artistic practice and activism, enriched by archival documents and news clips that shed new light on her work and its social and artistic impact over the last 60 years. The exhibition includes films selected from the 65 she has directed, 64 of which were made by Obomsawin at the NFB.
Alanis Obomsawin: The Children Have to Hear Another Story is organized by Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg and made possible through a partnership between Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, and Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada and CBC/Radio Canada, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The presentation at MoMA PS1 is organized by Elena Ketelsen González, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.
