Circle of the Sun#Pete Standing Alone

{{Infobox film

| name = Circle of the Sun

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| director = Colin Low

| producer = Tom Daly

| writer = Colin Low

| starring = Pete Standing Alone

| narrator = Pete Standing Alone
Stanley Jackson

| music = Eldon Rathburn

| cinematography = John Spotton
Dalton Muir

| editing = Tom Daly

| studio = National Film Board of Canada

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|1960}}

| runtime = 30 minutes

| country = Canada

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Circle of the Sun is a 1960 short documentary film on Kainai Nation, or Blood Tribe, of Southern Alberta, which captured their Sun Dance ritual on film for the first time.{{cite web |title=Circle of the Sun |url=http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=10608 |website=onf-nfb.gc.ca |publisher=National Film Board of Canada |access-date=4 February 2023}} Tribal leaders, who worried the traditional ceremony might be dying out, had permitted filming as a visual record.{{cite book|last=Rosenthal|first=Alan |author2=John Corner|title=New challenges for documentary|date=13 May 2005 |publisher=Manchester University Press|pages=90–91|isbn=0-7190-6899-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7byAre88gYC&q=%22Circle+of+the+Sun%22+low&pg=PA90}}

The film was directed by Colin Low, who was from the area. Low's father had been a foreman of the Cochrane Church Ranch in the area, southern Alberta and had known many Blood Tribe people since childhood. Colin Low had first witnessed the Sun Dance in 1953, the year he shot Corral. Footage of the Sun Dance was shot in 1956 and 1957, with the film completed in 1959. The film also included modern aspects of Blood Tribe life by shooting on an oil well on the reserve.

Pete Standing Alone

Circle of the Sun features narration from Pete Standing Alone, a young member of the Blood Tribe who worked on oil rigs. When Low had finished editing in 1959, he played a recorded conversation with Standing Alone for Stanley Jackson. Jackson was so impressed that Standing Alone was flown to the NFB's headquarters in Montreal to work on the narration. Standing Alone's participation in the film ended up being quite extensive, at a time when genuine Aboriginal voices were not often heard on the screen.{{cite web|url=http://www.nfb.ca/film/circle-of-the-sun|title=Circle of the Sun|last=Low|first=Colin|author2=Gil Cardinal|work=Curator's comments|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|accessdate=4 December 2009|archive-date=17 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117022421/https://www.nfb.ca/film/circle-of-the-sun/|url-status=dead}}

In 1982, Low directed the NFB documentary Standing Alone, which was broadcast nationally on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The hour-long film follows 25 years in Standing Alone's life, beginning with his youth as an oil-rig roughneck, rodeo rider and cowboy, and explores his concerns about preserving his tribe's spiritual heritage in the industrial age.{{cite news|url=http://www.bloodtribe.org/news/OCT.pdf|title=National Film Board to do Third Part of "Standing Alone" series |volume=2 |issue=10 |date=October 2007|work=Tissinikssini|publisher=BLOOD TRIBE ADMINISTRATION REVIEW|accessdate=5 December 2009}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}{{cite web|title=Standing Alone|url=http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=13730|work=Collections page|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|accessdate=4 July 2011}}

On National Aboriginal Day in 2011, the NFB released the Pete Standing Alone trilogy, which includes Circle of the Sun, Standing Alone and a 2010 film, Round Up. The trilogy documents 50 years in the life of the Kainai Nation, as well as Standing Alone's personal development from a youth to a tribal elder.{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Kelly|title=NFB celebrates National Aboriginal Day|url=http://realscreen.com/2011/06/17/nfb-celebrates-national-aboriginal-day/|accessdate=4 July 2011|newspaper=Realscreen|date=17 June 2011|location=Toronto}}

Awards

14th Canadian Film Awards: Genie Award for Best Film, General Information, 1962
Yorkton Film Festival, Yorkton, Saskatchewan: Golden Sheaf Award, First Prize, 1962
Festival of Tourist and Folklore Films, Brussels: Best Film on Folklore, 1962
La Plata International Children's Film Festival, La Plata, Argentina: Silver Oak Leaf, First Prize, Documentary, 1962
Electronic, Nuclear and Teleradio Cinematographic Review, Rome: First Prize, Tourist Films, 1962
SODRE International Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films, Montevideo, Uruguay: Honorable Mention, 1962
Festival dei Popoli/International Film Festival on Social Documentary, Florence, Italy: Honorable Mention, 1962
Victoria Film Festival, Victoria, British Columbia: Best Film, 1963
International Tourism Film Festival, Tarbes, France: Diploma of Honour and Trophy, 1967