AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD]

Directed by Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil | 2026 | 80 min |USA/Denmark

AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD] documents the emotional and vital work of MACPRA (Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance). This alliance, composed of repatriation specialists representing all Michigan tribes, fights to bring their Ancestors and funerary objects home from settler-colonial institutions such as museums, libraries, and archives.

Adam and Zack Khalil’s monumental and formally daring film follows the pressing struggle to re-bury Indigenous human remains that have been held in sterile storage, laying bare the history of Indigenous collections and the battle to recognize and enforce the laws intended to facilitate their repatriation to the communities from which they were originally taken. Using an essayistic approach alongside vérité portraits, the film celebrates the courageous individuals who undertake this hard, emotionally draining labour of return.

Festivals: Sundance Film Festival, True/False Film Fest

Awards: Sundance Audience Award: “Next”