Important: By downloading images you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity of The Museum of Modern Art's and MoMA PS1's current and upcoming exhibitions, programs, and news announcements. Permission to use images is granted only to the extent of the Museum's and MoMA PS1's ownership rights relating to those images—the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. The images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
Alanis Obomsawin: The Children Have to Hear Another Story
March 27, 2025—August 25, 2025
MoMA PS1
This spring, MoMA PS1 presents a retrospective of artist, activist, and musician Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki, b. 1932), one of Canada’s most renowned filmmakers. Opening March 27, the exhibition spans six decades of her multidisciplinary practice, bringing together a selection of films, sculptures, and sound, as well as rarely seen ephemera that sheds light on their production. Tracing her lasting contributions to social change, The Children Have to Hear Another Story brings Obomsawin’s innovative model of Indigenous cinema into focus.
This exhibition is accompanied by Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework, a monograph edited by Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg. The comprehensive book includes essays, anecdotes, conversations, and an interview with the artist, as well as her writings, etchings, film stills, photographs, and archival materials. It is distributed by Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
The exhibition is organized by Richard Hill, Smith Jarislowsky Senior Curator of Canadian Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Hila Peleg, Independent Curator, and made possible through a partnership between Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, and the Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada and CBC/Radio Canada, and with the support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The presentation at MoMA PS1 is organized by Elena Ketelsen González, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.
Learn more about the exhibition on our website.
Press Kit
Images
Alanis Obomsawin. Christmas at Moose Factory (production photograph). 1971. Courtesy the National Film Board of Canada and the artist
Alanis Obomsawin. Incident at Restigouche. 1984 (production photographs). Courtesy the National Film Board of Canada and the artist
Alanis Obomsawin. When All the Leaves Are Gone. Digital video: black-and-white and color, sound, 17:30 min. Courtesy National Film Board of Canada
Alanis Obomsawin. Trick or Treaty? 2014. Digital video: color, sound, 85 min. Courtesy National Film Board of Canada
Alanis Obomsawin. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. 1993. Video: 16 mm, colour, sound, 119 min. Courtesy National Film Board of Canada
Alanis Obomsawin rests on a rock beside the Lake of Two Mountains, Kanehsatake. 1990. Photo: John Kenney
Alanis Obomsawin filming Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child. 1986. Courtesy National Film Board of Canada and the artist