The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau

197428 minFilm: Documentary

Direction: Duke RedbirdHenning Jacobsen

Script: Bruce Martin

Produced for the NFB by Henning Jacobsen Productions Limited for Indian Affairs, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

This title is an acquisition.

In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Anishinaabe artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world. Jack Pollock, the Toronto art gallery owner who discovered Morrisseau's paintings in the early 1960s, comments on what makes them so unique.

Subject categories


  • Visual Arts > Indigenous ArtPaintingPortraits
  • Indigenous Peoples in Canada (First Nations and Métis) > PortraitsVisual Arts and Architecture
  • Family Studies/Home Economics > Aging/Death and Dying
  • Indigenous Studies > ArtsIdentity/Society
  • Media Education > Documentary Film
  • Arts Education > Visual Arts
  • Intangible Culture & Literature > Biographies, Autobiographies
  • Tangible & Material Culture > Contemporary Art
  • Indigenous Peoples: Canada > Ojibwe

Credits


music
Shingoose
singer
Shingoose
lyrics
Duke Redbird
director of photography
David M. Ostriker
Naohiko Kurita
Jackson Samuels
writer
Bruce Martin
editor
Michael MacLaverty
director
Duke Redbird
Henning Jacobsen