National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...
feature documentary film by
Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin, (born August 31, 1932) is an Abenaki people, Abenaki American Canadian, American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised prima ...
that profiles Shannen's Dream, an activist campaign first launched by Shannen Koostachin, a
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
teenager from Attawapiskat, to lobby for improved educational opportunities for
First Nations
First nations are indigenous settlers or bands.
First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to:
Indigenous groups
*List of Indigenous peoples
*First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
youth.
The film premiered on 7 September 2013 at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. ''The Fifth Estate (film), The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and ''Life of Crime (film), Life o ...
. It was subsequently named first runner-up for the festival's People's Choice Award in the documentary category, behind Jehane Noujaim's '' The Square''."TIFF 2013: 12 Years a Slave wins film fest’s top prize" ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'', 15 September 2013.
The film's title is Cree for "I love you forever." Obomsawin has said she heard about Koostachin's story from children's rights activist Cindy Blackstock. Obomsawin had been in the community of Attawapiskat working on this film when the Attawapiskat housing and infrastructure crisis broke. So she put this project aside and completed her film '' The People of the Kattawapiskak River'', before completing ''Hi-Ho Mistahey!''
The film was a shortlisted nominee for the
Canadian Screen Award
The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...