Waaydanaa (Haida Dubbed Version)
2019 · 16m · Canada
Directed by Christopher Auchter
Genres: biography, documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative, mythic, tender
Fifty years after a landmark totem pole raising in Old Massett, the event is revisited in Haida dialects. Carver Robert Davidson's 1969 work marks a turning point for Haida renewal.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone wants to make a reverent doc about cultural reclamation, so why is this the one that actually *works*—by refusing the hero's journey entirely and letting Haida voices inhabit their own narrative without translation? It's boring on paper and subversive in execution.
Auchter situates this film in the precise lineage it deserves: the documentary tradition of witnessed testimony and archival depth, where the decision to center Haida dialects becomes a formal act of repatriation, not sentiment—this is craft that knows exactly what it's arguing for.
The choice to subtitle in Haida rather than English-first, letting the language *lead* the image instead of following it, is the entire film—a single technical decision that rewires how we listen to documentary and who gets to speak first.