The aim of this article is to examine how different modes of moving image practice can expose and critique the impacts of extractive capitalism and settler colonialism on Indigenous communities in northern Canada. The article focuses on the work of two contemporary artist-filmmakers, Thirza Cuthand and Thomas Kneubühler. Their work has consistently engaged with the impacts of late capitalist violence and power within the context of settler-colonial Canada. The article argues that these filmmakers’ engagements and critiques of such formations of power are built around radically different framings and conceptualizations of futurity—as both a dominant logic within the exploitative rationale of extractive capitalist speculation and projection (Kneubühler), but also as a potential catalyst for Indigenous decolonization and self-determination (Cuthand).
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December 2020
Research Article|
December 28 2020
Documenting Extractive and Indigenous Futurities: Thirza Cuthand’s and Thomas Kneubühler’s Radical Work
Patrick Brian Smith
Patrick Brian Smith
Patrick Brian Smith completed his PhD in the Program in Film and Moving Image Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, in April 2020. His research interests include documentary theory and practice, spatial and political theory, media and forensics, and human rights. He is currently a teaching consultant in the Fine Arts program at Concordia University.
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Afterimage (2020) 47 (4): 50–68.
Citation
Patrick Brian Smith; Documenting Extractive and Indigenous Futurities: Thirza Cuthand’s and Thomas Kneubühler’s Radical Work. Afterimage 28 December 2020; 47 (4): 50–68. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.47.4.50
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