From the Point of View of Indigenous Peoples: Film as a Tool of Decolonization in Canada

Krzysztof Loska

krzysztof.loska@uj.edu.pl
Jagiellonian University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4078-798X

Abstract

The paper focuses on how native artists in Canada use audiovisual technology. Their films are considered in the context of postcolonial theory as part of a larger process in which indigenous peoples take control of image production and representation (Kerstin Knopf). Assuming that the decolonization of the gaze is connected with the struggle for political recognition and regaining control over one’s own life, it can be concluded that the indigenous artists quickly saw the benefits of Western technology and decided to take over the tools of the former colonizers in order to rewrite the history of their own peoples and tell it anew. By analyzing feature films and documentaries made by directors, primarily working for Isuma Productions, Wapikoni Mobile and Arnait Video Productions, one can clearly notice the importance of the search for stylistic means by which national minorities may express their unique point of view. Technology therefore is not seen as a threat to native culture, but as a chance to rebuild community ties.


Keywords:

indigenous media, postcolonialism, First Nations in Canada, film and audiovisual technology

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Published
2021-12-31

Cited by

Loska, K. (2021) “From the Point of View of Indigenous Peoples: Film as a Tool of Decolonization in Canada”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (116), pp. 171–189. doi: 10.36744/kf.624.

Authors

Krzysztof Loska 
krzysztof.loska@uj.edu.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4078-798X

Professor of Humanities in the Institute of Audiovisual Arts, Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He is the vice-president of the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies and member of Editorial Advisory Board of the bi-monthly Ekrany. He has authored 150 papers and dissertations on media, popular culture, film history and Japanese cinema, published in various journals (Kwartalnik Filmowy, Studia Filmoznawcze, Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, Ekrany, Kultura Współczesna, Ethos) and edited volumes. He has published twelve books (in Polish), e.g. Dziedzictwo McLuhana – między nowoczesnością a ponowoczesnością [McLuhan’s Legacy: Between Modernity and Postmodernity] (2001), Poetyka filmu japońskiego [Poetics of Japanese Cinema] (2009), Kenji Mizoguchi i wyobraźnia melodramatyczna [Kenji Mizoguchi and the Melodramatic Imagination] (2012), Nowy film japoński [New Japanese Cinema] (2013), Mistrzowie kina japońskiego [Masters of Japanese Film] (2015) and Postkolonialna Europa. Etnoobrazy współczesnego kina [Postcolonial Europe: Ethnoscapes of Contemporary Cinema] (2016).



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