Bio

Nathan Adler is an artist, writer, editor, and filmmaker. He the author of Wrist and Ghost Lake (Kegedonce Press), and co-editor of Bawaajigan ~ Stories of Power(Exile Editions), he has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, is a first-place winner of the Aboriginal Writing Challenge, and a recipient of a Hnatyshyn Reveal award for Literature. He is Jewish and Anishinaabe, and a member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. 

Works

Sexy Highland Stream

  • 2021
  • Nathan Adler

A spoken word poem and minimalist audio track about a sexy highland stream, a love letter to the beauty found in nature, and the mysterious way beauty is suffused in the natural world, written in English and Anishinaabemowin.

Sexy Highland Stream

Gaawiin Gego

  • 2020
  • Nathan Adler

Gaawiin Gego [Got No Nothing] is based on a rhyme in Ojibwe that my great aunt taught me, the lyrics reference the blues and a Nina Simone song. The audio track is layered over top of found video footage from Lac Des Mille Lacs, which is the lake beside our Reserve

Still from Gaawiin Gego, large fish superimposed over a starry night sky.

Noongom

  • 2020
  • Nathan Adler

A short video featuring composited imagery with themes of the transitory nature of moments in time, the ephemeral passing of everyday mundane experiences, and dealing with loss.

Abstract image of tree branches, leaves and butterfly wings. Shades of pink, brown, white, purple.

Treaty X

  • 2020
  • Nathan Adler

Treaty X features an audio track and a layering of composited video footage with themes of connection/disconnection to land and waters, treaty rights, and the way capitalism monetizes nature. The Treaty #3 territory comprises 55,000 hectares of land, and annuity payments of $5 have never been adjusted for inflation.

Treaty X

Keemooch

  • 2019
  • Nathan Adler, Howard Adler

A short film on the subject of Indigenous Love. What is (romantic) love? And what does it mean to you? 8 couples share their thoughts

Keemooch

Miigwetch Nshoomis

  • 2018
  • Nathan Adler

An Ojibwe boy falls in love with Grandfather Sun, and recites an Anishinaabe language morning prayer with a few slight alterations. Thank you Grandfather. Miigwetch Nshoomis. I love the feel of your light on my skin. Gotta love that Vitamin D. The language used in this piece is Anishinaabe/Ojibwe.

Miigwetch Nshoomis

CALVING

  • 2017
  • Nathan Adler

Waking up after thousands of years of being encased in ice, the voice of a creature is heard, emerging to find that the world is a much different place, although some things remain the same, he is hungry, and he is still an Apex predator, at the top of the food chain. The soundtrack is composed of samples of audio from the largest mass calving event in recorded history (when arctic ice melts and collapses into the ocean). There's a new monster in town.

CALVING

Miikana (The Road)

  • 2015
  • Nathan Adler

A split-screen video of the Trans-Canada Highway and the single Access Road on our Reserve, the Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation / Nezaatiikang, located north-west of Thunder Bay. Before the completion of the Access road in the late 2000's, the Reserve was only accessible by water. The roads work as metaphor of Colonization by revealing disparity between Canada and Indigenous Nations.

Miikana (The Road)