The 36th FIPA will present the world premiere of Nitassinan, a documentary by Joséphine Bacon co-directed and produced by Kim O’Bomsawin, during its opening night on August 4, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at the Outremont Theater.
Nitassinan is a feature-length documentary that aims to be the testimony of the Innu people, and the affirmation of our History, past, present and future. The film attests to our vitality, our resilience, and this immutable bond that unites us to the Earth. Because Nitassinan is not only the place where we come from: it is a living part of ourselves. He nourished our language, inspired our thoughts, guided our steps. This film is a message of love to our Territory, which saw us born and which still accompanies us today, even in our dreams.
Joséphine Bacon is one of the great voices of contemporary Indigenous literature in Quebec and Canada. Poet, lyricist, storyteller, speaker, screenwriter, translator-interpreter, director and teacher, she is dedicated to promoting the Innu language and culture with a smiling and passionate determination. His work, deeply rooted in the ancestral territory, Nutshimit, celebrates the memory of the elders, the spiritual link uniting the Innu to the spirits of the forest as well as the resilience of a long-marginalized culture. His poetry calls for dialogue between people and invites us to listen to the world differently by discovering the richness of indigenous cultures.
Abenaki from the Odanak community, Kim O’Bomsawin obtained a master’s degree in sociology before embarking on a career as a documentary filmmaker. She wrote and directed the feature documentary Je m’appelle humaine (2020), a sensitive portrait of the Innu poet Joséphine Bacon. She also directed the four-part documentary series Telling Our Story, selected for TIFF in 2023. In 2024, she won the Best Canadian Documentary Award (VIFF) and the Magnus Isacsson Prize (RIDM) for her film Ninan Auassat: We, the Children. Since 2020, Kim has been president of Nikan Productions (formerly Terre Innue).
Nitassinan also relies on the contribution of Sarah Fortin to the additional production. The film is produced by Kim O’Bomsawin, Maéli Beauvais-Gentile and Elodie Polet for Nikan Productions, with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, federal and provincial tax credit programs, MELS Funds, Telefilm Canada, Indigenous Screen Office, the ROGERS Fund, the Conseil des Innu de Pessamit, ITUM, the Tshakapesh Institute. It is distributed by Maison 4:3 and will be released this fall.