Jan 17, 2022

Exhibition opening postponed: The Children Have to Hear Another Story – Alanis Obomsawin will begin on February 12, 2022

The Children Have to Hear Another Story – Alanis Obomsawin
February 12 – April 18, 2022
Curators: Richard William Hill and Hila Peleg

Press tour
February 9, 2022, 2 pm
Registration via

Due to restricted travel owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the opening of the exhibition The Children Have to Hear Another Story – Alanis Obomsawin has been postponed until February 12.

The Annual Press Conference scheduled for January 21 has been cancelled.

Alanis Obomsawin will not be able to take part in the opening as planned. The artist’s visit to Berlin is planned for early April. Interviews can take place in advance via phone or video call. We look forward to your request at .

Alanis Obomsawin is a member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most respected artists. This exhibition at HKW presents works from the last five decades of her activist filmmaking.

Alanis Obomsawin (b. 1932) grew up in Canada at a time when options for social and political agency were systemically foreclosed for Indigenous Peoples. Despite this, she has managed to consistently access public platforms to advance Indigenous concerns and give voice to her peoples. Since the 1970s, she has created a model of Indigenous cinema that is deeply committed to social justice and the collective issue of ecology. Her work challenges the core assumptions of the world system determined by colonialism. This exhibition and accompanying book contribute to the current discourse in Europe on histories of representation. Bringing together a vivid selection of films, prints and music, The Children Have to Hear Another Story reflects on Obomsawin’s lifework of documentary filmmaking, storytelling and listening.

A public program of tours, talks and film screenings with the artist and invited guests will take place in early April.

More information:hkw.de/en/anotherstory

Alanis Obomsawin: Lifework

Edited by Richard William Hill, Hila Peleg and HKW
Prestel, 2022
In English
Hardcover, 272 pages, 25 x 31 cm, 250 color illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-7913-7923-4
Available from February 8, 2022 at Prestel
Price: 49€
Available from February 12, 2022 at the HKW at a price of 36€.

Alanis Obomsawin is an activist filmmaker and producer at the National Film Board of Canada, where she has worked since 1967. Her documentary cinema is deeply committed to the social justice of Indigenous Peoples, especially the rights of children. This book reflects on Obomsawin’s lifework by bringing together rigorous essayistic investigations with personal anecdote, conversation and storytelling. It includes an interview with the artist, her own writing and etchings, archival material and an array of film stills and photographs.

Authors include Karrmen Crey, Richard Fung, Monika Kin Gagnon, Richard William Hill, Jessica L. Horton, Ursula Johnson, Alexandra Juhasz, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Doreen Manuel, Joseph Naytowhow, Monique Nolett-Ille, Alanis Obomsawin, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Jason Ryle, Lisa Steele, Loretta Todd, Robert Verrall and Jesse Wente

Visitor Information

Current hours: Daily, except Tue, 12 noon–8 pm

The vaccinated-recovered rule (2G) is currently in effect for all exhibitions and events.

Updated information for visitors at hkw.de/visit

Partners

The Children Have to Hear Another Story – Alanis Obomsawin is made possible by a partnership between Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Art Museum at the University of Toronto and Vancouver Art Gallery, in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada and through the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts, Embassy of Canada, Berlin and CBC/Radio-Canada.

Part of The New Alphabet (2019–22) supported by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media due to a ruling of the German Bundestag.

Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and by the Federal Foreign Office.

Press Contact

Jan Trautmann
Head of Press and PR
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
T + 49 (0) 30 39787-192

hkw.de