Credit: Amber Bracken
Netflix has acquired feature documentary “Yintah” for U.S., U.K. and Canadian distribution. The acquisition comes just ahead of the film’s Camden Intl. Film Festival premiere on Sept. 14.
More than a decade in the making, “Yintah” tells the story of a Canadian-based Indigenous nation’s fight for sovereignty as it resists the construction of multiple oil and fracked-gas pipelines across its territory. Co-directed by Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, and Jennifer Wickham, the docu captures the Wet’suwet’en nation’s right to stewardship and sovereignty over their territories.
The film follows Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham as they resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.
Netflix will qualify the 111-minute doc, which debuted in February at the True/False Film Festival, for Academy Award consideration.
“Mirroring the scope and ambition of the Wet’suwet’en fight to protect unsurrendered lands from theft, “Yintah” offers the definitive account of a historic wave of Indigenous resistance to Canadian colonialism,” said the directors in a joint statement. “Drawing from more than a decade of verité footage, the film shadows two Wet’suwet’en leaders (Freda Huson and Molly Wickham) as they reoccupy and protect their homelands in the face of state violence.”
Toledano adds, “As filmmakers, we found that Canada protects its image through force. Throughout the years our camera operators were held at gunpoint, repeatedly arrested and detained, subject to illegal police exclusion zones, surveillance, harassment, and even incarceration. Despite this repression, “Yintah” is a film where every consequential moment was captured, providing a remarkably cohesive account of a story that police worked hard to suppress.”
In May, “Yintah” screened at the 31st edition of Canada’s Hot Docs film festival where it won the Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian documentary. The award came with a cash prize of CAD $50,000 ($36,543).
“As colonial forces conspired to criminalize Wet’suwet’en jurisdiction, we as filmmakers worked to uphold it,” says Wickham. “The result is a film which was compiled under the traditional laws and collective authority of the Wet’suwet’en house groups at the center of this story – developed with intensive participation from Wet’suwet’en leaders and co-directed by the immediate family members of the film’s protagonists. Adopting a decision-making structure which mirrors the practices of Wet’suwet’en self-governance, the film relied on collaboration and consensus-building to share this vital history from an authentically Wet’suwet’en perspective.”
Points North co-founder and program director Sean Flynn says that he wanted to bring the docu to CIFF because he and the fest’s programming team were “deeply moved by the ways “Yintah” captures the Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation’s resistance to a centuries-old pattern of colonial violence. The (filmmaker’s) unique collaborative process connects this struggle for territorial sovereignty with the growing movement for narrative sovereignty in Indigenous communities.”
“Yintah” will open in select theaters in the U.S. and U.K. and will stream on Netflix starting Oct. 18.
“The world needs to know the truth of what took place on Wet’suwet’en territory – how a determined community stood at gunpoint to protect Wet’suwet’en lands from theft,” says Michell. “We’re thrilled that Netflix has decided to champion this story.”
Variety's Addie Morfoot contributed to this post.
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