The International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI) presents a selection of short films by Indigenous filmmakers from different parts of the world. These films offer compelling perspectives on identity, belonging and resistance of Indigenous communities today. 

The screening time is 54 minutes and takes place in Nisga’a House. There is no advance booking of tickets. 

All movies have English subtitles.  

Vuogáiduvvan (Adaptation) (SÁ)  

Director: Aslak Paltto 

Vuogáiduvvan is a 5-minute documentary that follows a young Sámi reindeer herder in the far north of Sápmi, facing the rapidly changing climate and the disappearance of conditions that have sustained reindeer herding for generations.  

The film shows what happens when snow turns to rain, when rain turns to ice, and when ancient knowledge meets new challenges that cannot be solved the old way. It tells the story of a culture deeply connected to the land, now struggling to hold on.  

Through one herder´s experience, the film explores the deep uncertainty that climate change brings not only to animals and nature, but identity, memory and livelihood.  

Tamatta Ataqatigiippugut (We Are All Connected) (KN/GL)  

Director: Arina Kleist 

A reflection on ancestral spirits and our broken bond with Nature, told through compelling imagery and an Inuit perspective.  

Two Old Women (AK/US)  

Director: Princess Johnson 

Two elder Gwich''in women, Sa'' and Ch''idzigyaak, find themselves abandoned by their tribe during a brutally harsh famine. Devastated and scared of what the future holds, Sa'' must convince Ch''idzigyaak that their survival is worth a fight and ''if we are going to die, then we will die trying to live''. 

 Vielljažagaid iežaska jáhkku (Brothers in Faith) (SÁ)  

Director: Per-Josef Idivuoma 

Two brothers grow up within the cold, narrow walls of a colonial boarding school in Northern Norway. A place without dreams – only rules, and punishment. 

Based on the true story of Niillas and Ande Somby, whose fight to exist changed the 

course of Sámi history – a fight that still shapes the conversation today. 

 Waska – The Forest is My Family (EC)  

Director: Nina Gualinga 

As commodification and extractivism in the Amazon Rainforest extends to the plant medicine hayakwaska, the granddaughter of a Yachak (shaman) reveals the essence of what it means to live as part of the forest. 

Nina Gualinga of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, speaks with the memory of her Apayaya (grandfather) about the ongoing cultural appropriation, environmental destruction and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples, questioning our very relationship to Earth and the quest for healing.

Image