Indigenous Voices in ADIFF 2025
Discover First Nation voices with several Indigenous films as part of ADIFF NYC 2025, taking place November 28 – December 14, 2025, across New York City and online.
ADIFF is presenting powerful stories by and about Indigenous communities from North and South America and the Pacific. The films explore themes of land, identity, healing, and cultural continuity.
🌟 Premieres & Highlights
🎬 Matimekush (Canada, 2025, dir. Guillaume Sylvestre) — U.S. Premiere
Screening: Wednesday, Dec 3 – 6:00 PM, The Chapel (Teachers College, Columbia University)
A deeply moving documentary set in Northern Quebec, where Innu students and recently arrived African and Caribbean immigrant teachers forge unexpected bonds through shared histories of colonization, resilience, and belonging.
🎬 The Haka Party Incident (New Zealand/Aotearoa, 2024, dir. Katie Wolfe) — New York Premiere
Screening: Tuesday, Dec 9 – 7:30 PM, Cinema Village
A riveting documentary revisiting a 1979 act of Māori resistance, when activists stopped a racist mock haka at the University of Auckland—an event that transformed New Zealand’s race relations.
We are also bringing back great films presented in ADIFF in previous years:
🎬 Loimata, The Sweetest Tears (New Zealand/Aotearoa, 2020, dir. Anna Marbrook)
Screening: Wednesday, Dec 10 – 1:30 PM, Cinema Village + Online (Mini Virtual Festival)
A profoundly emotional portrait of Māori leader and ocean voyager Lilo Ema Siope, who returns home after years in exile to heal her family’s intergenerational trauma and reclaim ancestral strength.
🎬 Kuessipan (Canada, 2019, dir. Myriam Verreault, co-written with Naomi Fontaine)
Screening: Monday, Dec 8 – 12:40 PM, Cinema Village
Set in the Innu community of Uashat-Maliotenam, this award-winning coming-of-age drama follows two best friends whose lives diverge as one dreams beyond the reserve while the other remains rooted in tradition.
🎬 Rosa Chumbe (Peru, 2015, dir. Jonatan Relayze Chiang)
Screening: Monday, Dec 8 – 3:00 PM, Cinema Village
A powerful drama about redemption and faith, centered on an Indigenous grandmother in Lima who finds spiritual renewal while caring for her abandoned grandson.