Now Is the Time (2019)

Directed by

Christopher Auchter

Genre

documentary film

Country

Canada

Runtime

16 min

Rated

14A

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary marks the 50th anniversary of a totem pole raised by Haida artist Robert Davidson in 1969. It combines old footage of that event with new interviews where Davidson talks about its meaning.

reflectivecelebratoryreverenthistoricquietarchivalpersonalcontemplative

What happens

Now Is the Time (Haida: Waaydanaa) is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Christopher Auchter and released in 2019. Created to mark the 50th anniversary of Haida artist Robert Davidson carving and erecting a totem pole on Haida Gwaii in 1969 for the first time in nearly a century, the film blends historical footage from Eugene Boyko's 1970 documentary film This Was the Time with contemporary footage, including the now elderly Davidson's own reflections on the historic importance of his project. The film was made as part of a National Film Board of Canada project, encouraging indigenous filmmakers to make new works responding to and recontextualizing the sometimes colonialist outsider perspectives reflected in many of the organization's old documentaries on First Nations and Inuit cultures. The film premiered on September 7, 2019 at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was subsequently screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and was selected for inclusion in Op-Docs, The New York Times streaming platform for short documentary films. The film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Short Documentary at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020. Waaydanaa, a Haida language version of the film, was released in 2024. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• This Was the Time (1970)
• Bill Reid (1979)
• Haida Modern (2019)
• Totem: Return and Renewal (2007)
• Totem: the Return of the G'psgolox Pole (2007)
• Unceded Chiefs (2019)
• Where the Land Ends (2019)
• Love Letters from Everest (2019)