Loved The Elephant Whisperers? Here's 5 Documentaries Based On Indigenous People

Indian documentary The Elephant Whisperers really made every Indian proud by winning the Oscar for the Best Documentary Short category. If you loved this heartwarming story of the bond between humans and animals, here are other documentaries that you will love as well.

The 95th Academy Awards were iconic with Naatu Naatu and The Elephant Whisperers making India proud with historic wins. The Oscar-winning Tamil language documentary is inspired by true events and tells the story of a South Indian couple Bomman and Bellie who take up the task of raising and taking care of an orphaned baby elephant. The humans and the elephant soon become family, understanding each other like no one else and showing the bond between animals and humans. There are many such great documentaries made on indigenous people that explore their life and struggles and here are a few of them that you definitely love watching.

Suggested Reading: The Elephant Whisperers: Oscar-Winner Celebrates Bond Between Humans And Wildlife

Documentary On Indigenous People

We Still Live Here

This documentary is based on the life of the Wampanoag tribe, the indigenous people of North America. It depicts the story of an honored Wampanoag linguist who makes her way out of Mashpee, Massachusetts to explore success in the city but returns home when she realises that the importance of her own language, the Wampanoag language, which has been abandoned since a long time and decides to revive it and the roots of the indigenous people.

Water Warriors

This is the typical tale of industries exploiting the natural resources used by indigenous people and polluting them for their use. This 2018 award-winning documentary tells the story of the indigenous people of New Brunswick, Canada fighting against the natural gas company's intentions of fracking in the region. The indigenous people are supported by activists and white residents to protect the local water supply from exploitation by industrialists.

We Breathe Again

This 2017 documentary explores the life of people in Alaska and how they live in harsh weather conditions and talks about the cultures and practices that they have passed down to their generations. The documentary focused on four people dealing with suicide and trauma, a major issue among Alaskan natives, and the impact of the forced and rapid changes that were brought into the lives of these Alaskan natives during the last century.

Dammed But Not Damned

This documentary is about the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada which led to 10,000 tribal people living in forests and the bank of the river being dislocated from their habitat and moving to the cities without proper facilities and provisions. The documentary was based on the research and data collected by the economist couple Neeraj Kaushal and Swaminathan Aiyar and showed how the controversial project affected the tribals.

We Will Stand Up

This documentary was based on the life of a 22-year-old Cree Red Pheasant First Nation man named Coulten Bouhie, who was shot dead by a farm owner named Gerald Stanley in 2016. The documentary shows the struggle of his family to get justice after Stanley was claimed as not guilty in the case. The documentary was released in 2019 and was critically acclaimed, winning awards at the 2019 DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Hot Docs, and the 8th Canadian Screen Awards.