Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (Adam and Zach Khalil, 2026)
Ohio Premiere
A bold cry from the heart and the mind, Aanikoobijigan looks at the Michigan repatriation specialists working to return and rebury Indigenous human remains.
Film/Video Theater
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Tickets available to the general public September 4
$8 members
$12 general public
$9 adults 55 and over
$6 students
Adam and Zach Khalil’s monumental and daring film follows the emotional and vital work of a Michigan Indigenous alliance made up of repatriation specialists representing all Michigan tribes. These repatriation specialists fight to bring their ancestors’ remains and funerary objects home from settler colonial institutions like museums, libraries, and archives. The film follows the pressing struggle to rebury 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 they were originally stolen from. Taking the approach of an essay film alongside documentary portraits, Aanikoobijigan celebrates the courageous individuals who carry out this hard and emotionally draining labor of return. In English and Anishinaabemowin with English subtitles. (85 mins., DCP)
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"Piece by piece, the film becomes a portrait of quiet, ordinary courage." The Playlist
In the press
About the filmmakers
Adam and Zack Khalil
Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil (Ojibway) are filmmakers and artists from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Their work subverts traditional forms of ethnography through humor, transgression, and innovative documentary practice. Their films and installations have been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, Sundance, and the Wexner Center for the Arts, among other organizations and festivals. Both graduated from the Film and Electronic Arts program at Bard College, and are UnionDocs Collaborative Fellows, Gates Millennium Scholars, 2017 Sundance Indigenous Opportunity Fellows, and 2018 Sundance Art of Nonfiction grant recipients.