Áila, returning home emotionally tender and exhausted from a difficult appointment with her OB-GYN, finds a terrified, barefoot and heavily pregnant Rosie shivering out in the rain. Clearly in need, Rosie is paralyzed: caught between escaping her violent boyfriend heard screaming from across the street and having nowhere to go. Frightened by the escalating danger, Áila grabs Rosie and urges her to move quickly to the safety of Áila's nearby apartment. Thus begins a long, tense afternoon of bare instinct – both of survival and of motherhood-as the two Indigenous women from very different backgrounds, seek some semblance of stability and safety for themselves and each other. A love poem to women, THE BODY REMEMBERS WHEN THE WORLD BROKE OPEN weaves a compellingly simple story around the complex themes of racialized female bodies, a country's failure to support its most vulnerable youth, and the continuing effects of colonial violence.

Directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.

Screening at MoMA as part of the Film exhibition Alanis Obomsawin: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=8390 Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. 1993. Canada. Written and directed by Alanis Obomsawin Trailer courtesy of the filmmaker