Forbidden Music (2025)

The feature documentary explores the extraordinary story between Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Mungo Martin and Jewish ethnomusicologist Dr. Ida Halpern. Nearly 75 years ago, they partnered up to record hundreds of Indigenous songs at risk of being lost to cultural genocide. Both had endured devastating cultural suppression: Dr. Halpern fled Nazi-occupied Austria, where her parents were killed while Chief Martin faced Canada’s Potlatch Ban and the enduring trauma of residential schools.

The documentary will be broadcast on the Knowledge Network this fall. 

Financial support is from Knowledge, the Indigenous Screen Office, Rogers Doc Fund and the Canada Media Fund.