Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising

Despite it lasting 40 days in 1974, there is only eight minutes of footage about an Indigenous youth-led armed occupation in Kenora, Ontario. The documentary Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising tells that story of Indigenous resilience and power. A little-known story of a youth-led Indigenous land reclamation in a northwestern Ontario park comes to light in Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising. For 40 days in 1974, 150 people took over Anicinabe Park in Kenora in protest over the ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous people. Their issues included illegal land purchases, poor housing conditions, a lack of employment opportunities, and the failings of the Canadian federal government and the Department of Indian Affairs.

Led by the charismatic and eloquent Louie Cameron, leader of the Ojibway Warriors Society, the protest reached all the way to the nation’s capital and beyond — it even caught the eye of the American Indian Movement, whose members joined the cause.

Despite only having eight minutes of archival footage of the armed occupation to work with, director Shane Belcourt — collaborating with acclaimed author and journalist Tanya Talaga (TIFF ’24’s The Knowing) who also serves as co-writer and producer — crafts a captivating documentary that honours the legacy of the protest and identifies its ramifications down to the present day.

Utilizing an immersive set to welcome those who took part in the standoff for impactful present-day interviews and drawing on Cameron’s own unpublished manuscript about the events (read by his son), Belcourt foregrounds the voices of those who were there. The result is a timely and important film that celebrates the power and resilience of Indigenous people.