Mohawk Girls

Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes an entertaining and insightful look at the "Hollywood Indian", exploring the portrayal of North American Indigenous peoples through a century of cinema. Traveling through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding - and misunderstanding - of Indigenous peoples. Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema's depiction of Indigenous people from the silent film era to today, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Indigenous and non-Indigenous film celebrities, activists, film critics and historians. Diamond meets with Clint Eastwood (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, Unforgiven) at his studios in Burbank, California, where the film legend discusses the evolution of the image of "Indians" in Westerns and what cowboy-and-Indian myths mean to America. Reel Injun also hears from legendary Native American activists John Trudell, Russell Means and Sacheen Littlefeather. Celebrities featured in Reel Injun include Robbie Robertson, the half-Jewish, half-Mohawk musician and soundtrack composer (Raging Bull, Casino, Gangs of New York), Cherokee actor Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans, Geronimo), filmmakers Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man) and Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals) and acclaimed Indigenous actors Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart) and Adam Beach (Smoke Signals, Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers). Diamond also travels North to the remote Nunavut town of Igloolik (population: 1500) to interview Zacharias Kunuk, director of the Caméra d'or-winning The Fast Runner. Reel Injun's humour and star power is balanced with insightful commentary from film critics and historians, including CBC film critic Jesse Wente, Angela Aleiss, author and scholar of Native American Studies, and Melinda Micco, associate professor of ethnic studies at Mills College in California. In Reel Injun, Diamond takes the audience on a journey across America to some of cinema's most iconic landscapes, including Monument Valley, the setting for Hollywood's greatest Westerns, and the Black Hills of South Dakota, home to Crazy Horse and countless movie legends. Was Crazy Horse the inspiration for the mystical warrior stereotype? In search of answers, we meet his descendants on the desperately poor Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema's depiction of Indigenous people from the silent film era to today, only to find the future of Indigenous cinema in the unlikeliest of places - Canada's North. It's a loving look at cinema through the eyes of the people who appeared in its very first flickering images and have survived to tell their stories their own way.

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.

Quebec license plates don't sport cutesy tourist slogans like "Canada's Ocean Playground" or "Land of Living Skies." Instead, they draw attention to the past with "Je me souviens" ("I remember")--a motto that cuts to the heart of Quebec history and society. To find out just what "Je me souviens" means to Quebecers, director Thierry Le Brun sets off across the province, license plate in hand. He rides a dog sled, goes ice fishing, visits an emu farm, joins the Carifiesta celebrations and even gets pulled over by the cops. In the process, he meets a cast of characters--both famous and unknown--with wildly differing views on the provincial motto. Over the course of this illuminating, entertaining and funny documentary, "Je me souviens" becomes a Rorschach ink blot into which Quebecers peer, each bringing their own interpretation. In the process, they can also see each other in a new way, and come to understand the concerns of the many communities that make up their land.