Abstracts
Abstract
An emerging First Nations cinema in Québec is progressively challenging both exotic or naïve representations of “the Indigenous Other” on the one hand, and falsely homogenous representations of a Québécois identity on the other. Kuessipan (2019), Myriam Verreault and Naomi Fontaine’s collaborative adaptation of Fontaine’s eponymous novel, is one of the most highly acclaimed productions within this shifting cinematic landscape. This article examines the ethical implications of the film’s narrative, form and production process as modes of intercultural encounter. It claims that by opening a space of productive exchange and solidarity—within the film, in its interpellation of viewers, and through Verreault and Fontaine’s engagements with each other and the public—Kuessipan is emblematic of the ethical ideals of “cinéma-monde” (Gott and Schilt).
Keywords:
- Myriam Verreault,
- Kuessipan,
- Indigenous cinema,
- otherness,
- First Nations
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Appendices
Biographical note
Ioana Pribiag is Assistant Professor of French at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she teaches francophone literature, postcolonial theory and cinema. Her recent work includes articles on Jacques Rancière, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Michèle Lalonde, and Gaston Miron. She has co-edited a special issue on contemporary politics and political theory entitled The Locations of Politics (currently under review) and is working on a book manuscript called Shards: Spectacular Fragmentation in Francophone Postcolonial Literature.