The Cinematheque

Free Admission

“Tailfeathers takes a gentle but informative approach to a complex, heartbreaking, infuriating situation … Kímmapiiyipitssini is a necessary documentary that looks at substance use without judgment.”

Gail Johnson, Stir

The inaugural film in the Our Stories to Tell series is a beautiful documentary by acclaimed Blackfoot/​Sámi filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (co-star and co-director of 2019’s The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open). Kímmapiiyipitssini, shot over five years, focuses on Tailfeathers’s Kainai Nation community and the impacts of the opioid crisis on its members, first responders, and health professionals. Exemplifying how empathy and harm reduction can work hand-in-hand to support folks with addiction, the film does a remarkable job of showing various perspectives in order to raise awareness and amplify voices. Tailfeathers’s second full-length documentary (after 2017’s cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city) won awards at Hot Docs and DOXA, and was named Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards.

Post-screening discussion with series advisor Lyana Patrick, a documentary filmmaker and educator on Indigenous community health.

“Expansive, wrenching, and hopeful … A grand, enveloping doc that redefines the meaningful work that film can accomplish.”

Alisha Mughal, Exclaim!

“An urgently therapeutic portrait of the opioid crisis.”

Pat Mullen, POV Magazine