BEYOND EXTINCTION: SINIXT RESURGENCE—Montreal Premiere

Join Cinema Politica Concordia for the Montreal premiere of BEYOND EXTINCTION: SINIXT RESURGENCE followed by a Q&A with award-winning director Ali Kazimi moderated by the Director of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University, Dr Catherine Kineweskwêw Richardson.

This film is the result of Ali Kazimi's decades-long commitment to the story of the Sinixt (declared “extinct” by the state). It's a compelling and understated work of beauty and solidarity, which traces Indigenous matriarchs’ fight to revive traditions and save ancient burial grounds in BC’s Slocan Valley.

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BEYOND EXTINCTION: SINIXT RESURGENCE

Ali Kazimi / Canada / 2022 / 1h42m / English, Snsəlxcín

BEYOND EXTINCTION: SINIXT RESURGENCE documents three decades of Indigenous struggle by the Sinixt people whose traditional territories are divided by the border between Southwest British Columbia and the USA. To tell a complex story never told, and investigate how the Canadian government declared the Sinixt people to be “extinct”, the film weaves together contemporary interviews, oral histories and personal as well as public archive. Along this journey, we see the Sinixt fight deportation, challenge Canada’s immigration laws and seek recognition for themselves and their traditional practices under Canada’s constitution.

Director Ali Kazimi’s journey began in 1995, when he was invited and granted intimate access to the community-building work of the autonomous Sinixt peoples in the face of the harm done by the Indian Act, colonialism, residential schools, and borders. Kazimi follows the journey of matriarchs Marilyn James, Eva Orr and Alvina Lum, and the communities supporting them as they repatriate the remains of ancestors held in museums, fight against logging in their traditional territories, revive ceremonies, convey oral histories and fight against erasure by the Canadian state.

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This event is co-presented by Climate Justice Montreal, The Office of Sustainability - Concordia University, Le Frigo Vert, Alternatives, and Divest McGill.

Admission is by donation ($5-10 suggested). The venue is wheelchair accessible. In order to prevent the spreading of COVID 19, wearing a mask at Cinema Politica Concordia events is strongly recommended.

More info: https://www.cinemapolitica.org/.../beyond-extinction.../