Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]

Adam and Zach Khalil bring their documentary Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] to the Wexner Center for the Arts on Saturday, October 24. It's the film's Ohio premiere, and it's part of Unorthodocs, the center's annual festival of creative nonfiction filmmaking, now in its 10th year. The screening also fits into the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View.

Aanikoobijigan is an 85-minute essay film and documentary portrait. It follows a Michigan Indigenous alliance of repatriation specialists who work to return and rebury human remains and funerary objects taken by settler-colonial institutions like museums, libraries, and archives. It's shot in English and Anishinaabemowin, with English subtitles throughout. The title itself—Aanikoobijigan—means ancestor, great-grandparent, and great-grandchild, and that sense of lineage runs right through the middle of the work.

Behind the film are Adam and Zach Khalil, Ojibway filmmakers and artists from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, who now live and work in Brooklyn. They're graduates of the Bard College Film and Electronic Arts program, Sundance Fellows, and recipients of an Art of Nonfiction grant. Aanikoobijigan has already played at The Museum of Modern Art and Sundance, so this is its first time showing in Ohio. The Khalils describe the film as a bold cry from the heart and the mind.

The screening is at the Wexner's Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High Street, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. Tickets are $12 for the general public, $8 for members, $9 for adults 55 and over, and $6 for students.