- Own Voice
Foster Child
At 35 years old, filmmaker Gil Cardinal makes the decision to seek out his biological family, sending him on a journey into his own roots, uncovering an ancestry he knew nothing about. As Cardinal discovers that he was forcibly taken from his Métis mother, the film shifts into addressing the ongoing systematic oppression of Indigenous peoples.
This incredibly personal documentary was a landmark in Indigenous storytelling on film, and received many accolades including the Gemini award for directing.
Director
Gil Cardinal (Métis)
Cardinal was a groundbreaking filmmaker whose work embodied the complex history of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. His body of work includes NFB documentaries such as Foster Child and The Spirit Within alongside television series such as North of 60, Big Bear, Chiefs, and Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis. In 1997, he received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Film and Television, and in 2003, he won the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival for Totem: the Return of the G’psgolox Pole.
Cast
Gil Cardinal (Métis), Don Cardinal (Métis)
Producer
Jerry Krepakevich
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Classics, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
