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Pimachihowan

A University of Calgary business ethics professor with a background of working with indigenous people in Western Canada travels to the Northern Cree community of Little Red River First Nations to understand the Cree concept of Pimachihowan. Learning about Pimachihowan may help settler Canadians understand the constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations impacted by industrial development.

  • Michael B MacDonald
    Director
  • David Lertzman
    Writer
  • David Lertzman
    Producer
  • Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada
    Producer
  • Conroy Sewepagaham
    Key Cast
  • David Lertzman
    Key Cast
  • Willard Tall Cree
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Indigenous issues, environmental documentary
  • Runtime:
    33 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 20, 2015
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Michael B MacDonald

Dr. Michael B MacDonald is an ethnomusicologist, ethnographic filmmaker and author of two books on community music. Involved internationally, Michael is a director of the Freire Project an international critical community that works to promote social justice through education in a variety of cultural contexts, through supporting activism and critical research in cultural, youth, community and media. Michael began making films under Dr. Federico Spinetti, an Italian ethnographic filmmaker and student of world renowned Dr. John Baily.

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Director Statement

Inspired by the work of Jean Rouch, Les Blank and Werner Herzog, Michael calls his style of filmmaking cinema vitalite, films that look critically at modernity by bringing the viewer in contact with little know vibrant cultures. Constantly experimenting with approaches, Michael writes about posthumanism and film theory and uses video as a model of sharing 'ways of being a knowing being' in a complex world. Unsatisfied both with the academic world that seems little interested in sharing knowledge and the contemporary documentary world that has reverted to the object oriented lecture demonstration documentary format, cinema vitalite looks back to cinema verite methods in an attempt to contribute a film form about people living within the complexity of globalized modernity and the strategies they develop to live fully.