Following the screening of Aanikoobijigan at Michigan Theater, a reception and Q&A will take place at Stamps Gallery where filmmakers Zack and Adam Khalil will speak in reflection on their film and process. Filmmakers and special guests will be in attendance. Light refreshments will be served.

About the Film
In the sterile storage of museums and archives our ancestor’s remains struggle to find their way home. Aanikoobijigan follows eleven indigenous repatriation specialists that make up MACPRA (Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation & Repatriation Alliance) fighting to rebury and return ancestors from settler-colonial libraries, archives, and museums. Through an essayistic approach the film lays bare the history of indigenous collections, the laws passed to ensure return of human remains and funerary objects, and vérité portraits of the righteous and courageous individuals doing the hard and emotionally draining work of bringing our ancestors back home.

Presented in partnership with the U-M Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Office; U-M Museum of Anthropological Archeology; U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum; U-M Department of Film, Television, and Media; the U-M Department of American Culture; the U-M Inclusive History Project; the U-M Department of Anthropology; U-M Museum Studies Program; and the U-M Stamps Gallery.