As I Am
2010 · 4m · Canada
Directed by Nadia Myre
Genres: documentary, essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, provocative
Portraits paired with a Mohawk writer's poem challenge workplace stereotypes about Indigenous people. Pride in labour and culture counters preconceived notions.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Myre's doing the opposite of what you'd expect from a 'challenge stereotypes' brief—she's not preaching, she's assembling a *formal resistance* through portraiture and poetry that refuses easy sentiment. The provocation isn't the message; it's that the form itself becomes Indigenous refusal.
A precise interrogation of the essay film tradition, where Myre positions documentary portraiture and lyric text in deliberate conversation—the lineage runs from Vertov through contemporary Indigenous media practice, and this 4-minute work understands exactly where it sits in that archive.
The revelation is the editing decision to let the poem *pace* the portraits rather than underscoring them—that choice, holding image and voice in untethered rhythm, transforms what could've been earnest advocacy into something that trusts the viewer's eye to do the argument.