Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ award-winning feature-length documentary Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is screening in Canadian cinemas from November 5, distributed by the National Film Board of Canada.
Confirmed dates so far include Vancouver, Lethbridge, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Toronto and Victoria—with more cities to be announced—as this story of radical and profound change in the Kanai First Nation comes to communities across Canada.
Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is an intimate portrait of survival, love and the collective work of healing in the Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, a Blackfoot community facing the impacts of substance use and a drug-poisoning epidemic, where community members active in addiction and recovery, first responders and medical professionals implement harm reduction to save lives.
Contextualized in the historical and lived trauma of settler colonialism, Kímmapiiyipitssini draws a connecting line between the impacts of colonialism on Blackfoot land and people and the ongoing substance-use crisis. Held in love and hope for the future, Kímmapiiyipitssini asks the audience to be a part of this remarkable change with the community.
The film was shot over four years with a largely Indigenous crew working in close collaboration with members of the Kainai First Nation.
Kímmapiiyipitssini (GEE-maa-bee-bit-sin) is a Blackfoot word meaning “giving kindness to each other.”