What Was Ours

Feb 22, 2016

1h 19m

★ 0.0

Overview

Like millions of indigenous people, many Native American tribes do not control their own material history and culture. For the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the isolated Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, new contact with lost artifacts risks opening old wounds but also offers the possibility for healing. What Was Ours is the story of how a young journalist and a teenage powwow princess, both of the Arapaho tribe, travelled together with a Shoshone elder in search of missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago’s Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost and build hope for the future.

Genres

Documentary

What Was Ours Trailers

Cast

Self

Jordan Dresser

Self

Philbert McLeod

Self

Mikala SunRhodes

“Kill the Indian to save the man” was the catchphrase of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school opened in Pennsylvania in 1879. It became a grim epitaph for numerous native children who died there. In 2017, a delegation from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming attempts to retrieve the remains of three Northern Arapaho children buried far from home in the school cemetery, on a journey to recast the troubled legacy of Indian boarding schools, and heal historic wounds. This documentary film is produced by The Content Lab LLC, with support from The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, The Wyoming Humanities Council, and Wyoming PBS.

6.8

Reunion

Jan 2, 1946

Live footage from concentration camps after the liberation, and the complex transport and lodging of masses of prisoners of war and other deported people back to their home countries, at the end of World War II. A 45min 35mm print also exists (shown at Cinémathèque française in 2023).

7.0

Message from Mungo

Sep 19, 2014

Lake Mungo is an ancient Pleistocene lake-bed in south-western New South Wales, and is one of the world’s richest archaeological sites. Message from Mungo focuses on the interface over the last 40 years between the scientists on one hand, and, on the other, the Indigenous communities who identify with the land and with the human remains revealed at the site. This interface has often been deeply troubled and contentious, but within the conflict and its gradual resolution lies a moving story of the progressive empowerment of the traditional custodians of the area.

0.0

Volver a Volver

Oct 2, 2025

The Sykora family are only four people out of millions of Venezuelans that have recently escaped their collapsing country. They land in the Czech Republic, the country where Grandpa Jan was born, but also a place utterly strange to them. In a matter of months their savings have almost gone and job seeking becomes a nightmare. Again, the dream of just having a normal life starts to vanish. Will the family manage not to crumble along the way?

0.0

Hard Bargaining: Museums Face Claims for Return of Artefacts

Sep 18, 2011

Four French museums, the Louvre, the Quai Branly, the French National Library, and the Rouen Museum, are faced with pressing demands for the return of works of art. The number of demands is multiplying. They come from all over the world, and in particular from Egypt, Mali and New Zealand. The question of returning works of art to their countries of origin is increasingly making news. Take for example the emotions aroused by President Sarkozy’s decision, on the 12th November 2010, to return 297 royal manuscripts to South Korea. The ensuing row involved diametrically opposed points of view. Was it a violation of the principle of inalienability of France’s national collections or was it a just reparation for the victims of colonization? The rich countries’ great museums and the countries of origin have completely different visions of the issue. The museums defend the idea of a universal museum whose works belong to the whole of humanity.

5.5

Black Thoughts

Aug 12, 2020

A man that is a stranger, is an incredibly easy man to hate. However, walking in a stranger’s shoes, even for a short while, can transform a perceived adversary into an ally. Power is found in coming to know our neighbor’s hearts. For in the darkness of ignorance, enemies are made and wars are waged, but in the light of understanding, family extends beyond blood lines and legacies of hatred crumble.

0.0

Cracks in the Mask

Jun 6, 1997

A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign museums. In a quest to reclaim the past, Ephraim Bani, a wise and knowledgeable Torres Strait Islander, travels with his wife to the great museums of Europe where his heritage lies. The film, an SBS Independent production, shows that the thickest of masks cracks when a descendant of the original owners enters a museum.

8.5

The Homecoming

Sep 8, 2023

Sámi artefacts from the Finnish National Museum are returning home to Sápmi, while the holy drums of the Sámi people are still imprisoned in the basements of museums across Europe. The returning objects symbolise the dignity, identity, history, connection to ancestors and a whole world view that was taken from the Sámi people. Director Suvi West takes the viewer behind the scenes of the museum world to reflect on the spirit of the objects, the inequality of cultures and the colonialist burden of museums.

0.0

Etched in Bone

Oct 4, 2018

Drawing on original footage from National Geographic, Etched in Bone explores the impact of one notorious bone theft by a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Hundred of bones were stolen and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, until it became known to Arnhem elders in the late 1990s. The return of the sacred artefacts was called for, resulting in a tense standoff between indigenous tribespeople and the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.

0.0

Album polski

May 8, 1970

University student Anna and her boyfriend Tomek use a precious photograph to trace and unveil the complex wartime and post-war past of their parents.

0.0

Beyond Live MISAMO JAPAN SHOWCASE “Masterpiece”

Jul 27, 2023

No overview available.

0.0

Dracula: Fact or Fiction?

Oct 27, 1992

Of all the creatures conjured up from the shadows of the human mind, none exerts such a terrifying grip on our imaginations as the immortal night-stalker, Dracula. But did this fiend actually exist? Are there such things as living vampires? Now, in this startling expose of the vampire legend, you'll meet the scholar who traveled Transylvania's eerie landscapes to unearth the real-life Count Dracula: the ghoulish 15th-century Romanian prince known and feared as "Vlad the Impaler."

0.0

Class of Her Own

Apr 16, 2024

A teacher in a disadvantaged community rebels against a system that neglects many of its vulnerable students. Gloria Merriex transforms into a trailblazer, using rap, dance and other innovations to enable children to thrive in school—and beyond.

7.2

Le mie poesie non cambieranno il mondo

Aug 30, 2023

An intimate, ironic, and freewheeling portrait of Patrizia Cavalli.

6.0

La Grave BB

Oct 26, 2023

No overview available.

0.0

Me + You

Oct 13, 2024

A documentary about twin sisters whose beliefs have taken them on different paths. Filmmaker Zohra begins filming her twin sister Sanaa in their apartment in Brussels. When Sanaa silently turns to Islam, the religion the two sisters partially grew up with, Zohra becomes more and more consumed by capturing her sister. The inevitable transformation leads to a need to understand each other anew.

9.0

Napalm Girl. The Journey of a Photo

Feb 1, 2023

Through exclusive testimonies and clandestine videos, this documentary gives voice to courageous women in Iran who risked their lives to share their stories and to prominent women in culture, art and academia who were forced to leave their beloved country. They are a guiding force, able to explain through their individual, perilous and often tragic experiences, the drastic shift of a nation, caught between patriarchy, deep economic crisis, corruption, rigid religious and ideological beliefs.

8.0

Shouting Through The Letterhole

Invalid Date

10th Anniversary documentary about Royal Blood's 2014 eponymous debut album, presenting an intimate glimpse into the creative process and the journey behind their work, friendship and brotherhood.

8.0

La bataille de Saint-Léonard

Oct 11, 2024

No overview available.

What Was Ours

Overview

Genres

What Was Ours Trailers