Early in the film determiNATION Songs, a new documentary by Michelle Smith and Paul Rickard, the members of the band CerAmony extol the power art has to carry a message in a way that politics cannot. It’s a good thought – and one that the filmmakers should have heeded.

The film follows three different Aboriginal artists: the rock band CerAmony, singer/songwriter Cheri Maracle and a hip-hop artist named Samian who performs in Algonquin. The film examines their lives and the injustices that have shaped them into who they are.

Unfortunately, instead of artful consideration of an immensely difficult issue, the filmmakers have packed their film with endless interviews and overt political pontificating.

Please don’t read that as a belittling of the message – the issues being dealt with in the film are extremely important and complicated. However, the film does justice to neither the message nor the musicians.

Film, like music, is an artistic medium with the ability to move as well as inform, even in the documentary format. Yet the filmmakers have eschewed the more poetic elements of the form and created what comes across as an hour-an-a-half-long news story.

There are a few profoundly affecting moments, such as when Cheri Maracle performs her song about the plight of missing and murdered aboriginal women over images of protests and demonstrations.

Regrettably, moments like this are few and far between, leaving us with a film that sacrifices profundity for didacticism.