Spudwrench : l'homme de Kahnawake

This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin introduces us to Randy Horne, a high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people's culture and traditions, he was known as "Spudwrench" during the 1990 Oka crisis.

Offering a unique look behind the barricades at one man's impassioned defense of sacred territory, the film is both a portrait of Horne and the generations of daring Mohawk construction workers that have preceded him.

This short documentary by Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman arrested after the Oka Crisis' 78-day armed standoff in 1990. She was detained 4 days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government did not accept her Indigenous name.

In this feature-length documentary by Alanis Obomsawin, it's the summer of 2000 and the country watches in disbelief as federal fisheries wage war on the Mi'kmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest court in the land? Casting her cinematic and intellectual nets into history to provide context, Obomsawin delineates the complex roots of the conflict with passion and clarity, building a persuasive defence of the Mi'kmaq position.

Mary Two-Axe Earley: Skonkwehón:we Á:re kaká:raton ne Mary Two-Axe Earley akoká:ra, ísi’ nón: ne teiohseráhsen iakohskehnhà:’on taié:tahste’ tsi shakotikenhrón:nis konnonkwehón:we né:ne í:kare’ Kakoráhsera’ aoianerénhsera’ Indian Act nok tsi wa’ehsennowáhnha’ né: Canada’s women’s rights movement.

Né:ne iah nonwén:ton ónhka teiakotkáhthon kí:ken wateweièn:ton karahstánion nok kawennarahstánion wátston, Ienien’kehá:ka iekararáhstha’ Courtney Mountor teiotíhthare’ ne Ienien’kehá:ka iakonkwe’kénha né:ne iakohskehnhà’:on taié:tahste’ tsi shakotikenhrón:nis tsonathonwí:sen nok Kakoráhsera’ tsi nihotiianerenhserò:ten’ tsi ronte’niéntha’ ahonwanáhton’te’ nonkwehón:we. Nè:’e arihón:ni wahónhton’te’ ne onkwehón:we ahontatena’tónhkhwake’ ne konnonkwehón:we nok ronwatiien’okòn:’a tsi wahotíniake’ ne iah tehonnonkwehón:we.

Montour teiotíhthare’ Iehrhakón:ha iakorihwahskéhnhen Nellie Carlson, ne Mary akwáh ákta tsi ionátshi tánon’ iakotahsnié:nen tsi tionatáhsawe’ ne Indian Rights for Indian Women, nok áhsen nikahwatsiratátie’ tehonatátken ne Mary tsi iekhonnià:tha’ ne Kahnawà:ke, né: ká:ti’ ahshakotihsennakará:tate’ ní:kon iakoterihwakanonnì:’on tsi tiakotenenhratáhsawe’ aontahontén:rohwe’ akaia’takehnhahtsherénhawe’ aonsonteríhsi’ tsi rotirihón:ni ne tóhsa ahontatena’tónhkhwake’ onkwehón:we ne ioshentsheró:ton nihá:ti konnonkwehón:we nok ronwatiien’okòn:’a.

Released in 1969, These Are My People… was the first NFB film made entirely by an Indigenous crew. It was co-directed by Roy Daniels, Willie Dunn, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell and Barbara Wilson—members of the Indian Film Crew (IFC), an all-Indigenous unit established in 1968 as part of Challenge for Change, a broader organizational initiative to use media to effect social change. One of the first Canadian documentaries to foreground an Indigenous perspective on the history of Indigenous–settler relations, it features Standing Arrow and Tom Porter, from the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) community of Akwesasne, who discuss longhouse religion, culture, government and the impacts of settler arrival on their way of life.

Stories of resistance, strength and perseverance are laid bare in this examination of a dark day in Canadian history. At the height of tensions at Oka, Quebec, in 1990, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) women, children and Elders fled their community of Kahnawake out of fear for their safety. Once past the Canadian Army that surrounded their home, they were assaulted by angry non-Indigenous protesters who pelted their convoy with rocks. This visceral display of hatred and violence – rarely seen so publicly in Canada – shocked the nation and revealed the severity of the dangers that faced the Kanien’kehá:ka in their struggle to defend a sacred site.

This film is the fourth in Alanis Obomsawin’s landmark series on the Mohawk resistance at Oka that would become a pivot point in contemporary relationships between Indigenous nations and Canada.

A tribute to Indigenous women everywhere, this short documentary focuses on 5 women from across Canada. Of varied ages and backgrounds, they have achieved success in a variety of careers: as the Yukon legislature's first Indigenous woman minister (Margaret Joe), as a deck hand on a fishing boat (Corinne Hunt), as a teacher (Sophie MacLeod), as a lawyer (Roberta Jamieson), and as a band council chief (Sophie May Pierre - St. Mary’s Indian Band of the Ktunaxa Nation off the Ktunaxa Nation).

Each of these women talks about how she got to where she is today while emphasizing the importance of Indigenous culture - its values, art, and spiritual beliefs - in helping her to develop a sense of self and seeing through rough times, including residential school experiences.

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement.

Using never-before-seen archival footage and audio recordings, Mohawk filmmaker Courtney Montour engages in a deeply personal conversation with the late Mohawk woman who challenged sexist and genocidal government policies that stripped First Nations women and children of their Indian status when they married non-Indian men.

Montour speaks with Cree activist Nellie Carlson, Mary’s lifelong friend and co-founder of Indian Rights for Indian Women, and meets with three generations in Mary’s kitchen in Kahnawà:ke to honour the legacy of a woman who galvanized a national network of allies to help restore Indian status to thousands of First Nations women and children.

A series of still images follows master Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) basket maker Mathilda Jim, from the harvesting of materials to the creation of a functional work of art. Told in the Lil̓wat7úl language, this short documentary evokes the powerful connection between language, knowledge and culture.

This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about their culture, histories and knowledge.

In this feature-length documentary from Alanis Obomsawin, the filmmaker returns to the village where she was raised to craft a lyrical account of her own people. After decades of tirelessly recording others' stories, she focuses this film on her own.

In this short film, we meet 29-year-old Patrick Ross, an ex-prison inmate-turned-artist. Watch Patrick as he creates one of his extraordinary paintings while sharing his thoughts on his art, his time in jail, and his hopes for the future. First Stories is an emerging filmmaker program for Indigenous youth which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.