The Harvard Film Archive is proud to honor actress Tantoo Cardinal with the second Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking. Tantoo Cardinal is one of North America’s most widely recognized native actresses. Born in Fort McMurray, Canada, she has appeared in more than fifty films, ranging from independents such as Smoke Signals which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, to mainstream films like Black Robe and Legends of the Fall. Tantoo Cardinal came of age in Canada during a time when native culture was still viewed with suspicion and even contempt by the Canadian government. In the 1960s, the Canadian Content Rule came into effect. By strengthening the Canadian artistic community, this new law led to an increased number of roles for native actors in Canadian film and television. As a young actress, Tantoo Cardinal began her career with a docu-drama for the CBC and in productions for the Alberta Native Communications Society, she soon moved on to play larger roles in feature films. In an interview this year she stated:

We had no TV where I grew up in my community in northern Canada, and the only images of native people that I was exposed to, were my family and my relatives, these were wonderful and strong individuals whom I looked up to. It was only when I moved to Edmonton in Alberta in 1965, that I saw a different kind of image that was prevalent in Canadian society at that time, a negative image of native peoples as having no fixed address, and of being somehow lesser than. Acting for me was a way to redress this imbalance, acting allows me to present a different kind of truth, to bring some light back into the stories of our history.

The Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking is an annual award to honor an individual who has made a significant contribution as a director, actor, producer or writer to the legacy of Native American film. This program is jointly sponsored by the Sun Hill Foundation and the Harvard Film Archive.