The National Film Board of Canada presents a special premiere screening of the new Cree Language subtitled version of Foster Child at the Dreamspeakers International Film Festival on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at the Landmark Cinemas (Edmonton City Centre) at 7pm.
Foster Child is directed by the late filmmaker Gil Cardinal. The film came out back in 1987 and was recently subtitled with Cree syllabic subtitles, a collaboration between local Edmonton Elders
Jerry and Jo-Ann Saddleback, filmmaker/editor Conor McNally and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)’s producer Coty Savard.
Developed with the assistance of Elders, the film “Foster Child” by the late Metis filmmaker and Walk of Honour Inductee, Gil Cardinal was redeveloped with Cree Syllabic subtitles – the first film ever to have them. There will be a panel after the screening with the filmmakers, and the Elders who guided the project. An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born in Edmonton to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this auto-biographical documentary, he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her.
The NFB will add this version of the film to its Indigenous Cinema collection on nfb.ca on April 20,2026. A collection which includes 60+ films subtitled or dubbed in Indigenous languages.
Segment with Producer of the National Film Board of Canada, Coty Savard:
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