Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to receive Edward MacDowell Medal
Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin will be receiving this year's Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement honour previously bagged by Toni Morrison, David Lynch and Roseanne Cash among others.
Obomsawin will be creating history with this win as she is the first female director to have bagged the medal, presented by the MacDowell artist residency program.
Obomsawin is also the first recipient who descends from the Abanaki People, part of whose homeland is now the setting for MacDowell, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
"It is a distinct pleasure to be counted among such a magnificent group,"the 90-year-old said in a statement while referring to other winners.
Obomsawin, who is a New Hampshire native but grew up in Quebec, has made dozens of films, focusedon First Nations people. Her body of workincludesKanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistanceand Incident at Restigouche.
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"As the Grand Dame of the Indigenous film world and the documentary field, Alanis Obomsawin’s exemplary 52-year body of work uplifting Indigenous stories and triumph inspired us with compelling and unequivocal enthusiasm to award her with the 2023 Edward MacDowell Medal,"Bird Runningwater, a member of the Medal Selection Panel and guide for the Sundance Institute’s investment in Native American and Indigenous filmmakers, said in a statement.
Canadian writer Jesse Wente, board chair of Canada’s Council for the Arts, will be introducing Obomsawin during a July 23 gathering at MacDowell.
In its Sunday announcement, MacDowell said that it "has been reexamining its core values and vision, making changes to outdated and exclusionary policies, acknowledging that its program takes place on unceded First Nations lands, and continuing to activate diversity, equity, inclusion, and access throughout the organization".
MacDowell had called itself the MacDowell Colony until 2020. It dropped "colony," saying that the word suggests elitism and exclusion.
(With inputs from agencies)
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