Native Films
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43 titles
- DirectorBruce PittmanStarsMichelle St. JohnKim Bruisedhead FoxMarianne JonesA young Native Canadian (First Nations person) fights to keep her culture and identity when she is abducted to a residential school.
- DirectorAaron JamesStarsGordon TootoosisJimmy HermanStacy Da SilvaLife in a remote Indian Reservation is stirred up when one of its Elders begins to question the death of Hank Williams.
- DirectorSteve RashStarsGil BirminghamBrandon RouthCrystal AllenA story centered on a Native American lacrosse team making its way through a prep school league tournament.
- DirectorJeff BarnabyStarsDevery JacobsGlen GouldBrandon OakesRed Crow Mi'kmaq reservation, 1976: By government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that means imprisonment at St. Dymphna's. That means being at the mercy of "Popper", the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school.
- DirectorJorge ManzanoStarsGail MauriceColumpa BobbJonathan FisherAs her younger brother schemes to commit robbery, a jailed American Indian finds love with another woman.
- DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsKristina NehmJustine SaundersBob MazaStory of an aboriginal family who tries to move out of the fringe into the main white community.
- DirectorCharles Martin SmithStarsBarry PepperAnnabella PiugattukJames CromwellA pilot and his passenger struggle for survival after crashing in the Arctic tundra.
- DirectorZacharias KunukStarsNatar UngalaaqSylvia IvaluPeter-Henry ArnatsiaqThe telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior's endurance and battle of its menace.
- DirectorPeter StebbingsStarsCara GeeShay EyreBarbara GordonThree generations of First Nations women struggle to deal with the demons of their past.
- DirectorMichel PouletteStarsRoseanne SupernaultIpeelie OotoovaUapshkuss ThernishA Canadian aboriginal woman journeys to the Arctic in search of a missing member of her tribe, and falls in love with a man from a rival clan.
- DirectorTravis Holt HamiltonStarsDeshava ApacheeDonavon G. BarneyEthel BegayRaised in the suburbs of Phoenix, a Navajo college student must choose between a vacation in Rome or moving to the reservation to care for her ailing grandmother.
- DirectorKorinna SehringerStarsChaske SpencerQ'orianka KilcherTyler ChristopherShouting Secrets is a hopeful and heartwarming, universal story taking place in a present day Native American family. It's a story that is at once about the constancy and the fragility of love, as well as the importance of family.
- DirectorTim KellyCharlie SoapStarsKimberly GuerreroMo Brings PlentySteve ReevisThe work that led Wilma Mankiller to become the first modern female Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
- DirectorDavid MuellerLynn SaltStarsLarry AndersonDennis BanksTashina BanksAIM leader Dennis Banks looks back at his early life and the rise of the American Indian Movement.
- DirectorCyril MorinStarsChadwick BrownTonantzin CarmeloMichael SpearsA political thriller during the Wounded Knee insurrection in 1973. Two activist are arrested and maintain in custody in a sheriff's office. They will meet a Nixon advisor, a lawyer, a senator and a movie star who is also an activist. Feb 2013 will be the 40Th anniversary of the insurrection...
- DirectorBruce McDonaldStarsRyan Rajendra BlackAdam BeachJennifer PodemskiA story of life on a First Nations reserve in Ontario: Silas and Frank are trying to get into college to train to be mechanics but they find themselves having to deal with girls, family - and murder.
- DirectorMarie-Hélène CousineauMadeline IvaluStarsLukasi ForrestMarianne FarleyTravis KunnukAnna is nervous when she and her son, Tomas, arrive in the small, close-knit community of Igloolik, in the Canadian Arctic.
- DirectorScott BrachmayerStarsJohnny IssalukIsolated in the harsh wilderness of the Arctic, a hunter follows the teachings of survival passed on to him by his grandfather. In an environment government by the spirits of the land, a taboo is broken and he is forced to face the consequences.
- DirectorConnie EdwardsStarsKaren HillDebbie HouleElva JamiesonAboriginal Canadian women with diverse approaches to the healing process confront the current health crisis plaguing Canada's First Nations communities. For each, life's calling has been a struggle. Braided together with music and personal healing stories, traditional healing and modern medicine join forces to collectively address the physical, mental and spiritual health of all Aboriginal Canadians.
- DirectorBrent Ryan GreenStarsBooboo StewartQ'orianka KilcherJon ProudstarA high school cross country star growing up in a Native American community faces a barrage of personal struggles the day before the most important race of his life.
- DirectorTrevor MackStarsSean Wei MahDevery JacobsDon WiseA confrontation between a tribe of First Nations people and two road builders will change an entire nation forever.
- DirectorChris EyreStarsAdam BeachEvan AdamsIrene BedardArnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold's son Victor resents his father's alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family.
- DirectorCourtney HuntStarsMelissa LeoMisty UphamCharlie McDermottA mom looks for another source of income, when her husband leaves with the money meant for the new mobile home. A nearby Indian territory stretches across the border to Canada with a drivable frozen river between. Smuggling?
- DirectorChris EyreStarsJames McDanielIrene BedardDelanna StudiBased on a true story, a black educator takes a job teaching high-school English at the Three Nations Reservation, and is coaxed into coaching the girls basketball team.
- DirectorNiki CaroStarsKeisha Castle-HughesRawiri ParateneVicky HaughtonA contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
- DirectorRicky SchroderStarsEddie SpearsRussell MeansJulia JonesBlack Cloud, is an inspirational story about a young Navajo, Native American boxer, who overcomes personal challenges as he comes to terms with his heritage, while fighting his way for a spot on the US Olympic boxing team.
- DirectorSterlin HarjoStarsWes AllenJeri ArredondoLaura BaileyAfter his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.
- DirectorYves SimoneauStarsAidan QuinnAdam BeachAugust SchellenbergA historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.
- DirectorChristopher McLeodTells the story of three indigenous communities and the lands they struggle to protect: the Lakota of the Great Plains, the Hopi of the Four Corners area, and the Winnemem Wintu of northern California.
- DirectorSherman AlexieStarsEvan AdamsMichelle St. JohnGene TagabanSeymour Polatkin is a successful, gay Native American poet from Spokane who confronts his past when he returns to his childhood home on the reservation to attend the funeral of a dear friend.
- DirectorFrank PiersonStarsCharles AbourezkDave Bald EagleLawrence BayneMary Crow Dog, daughter of a desperately poor Indian family in South Dakota, is swept up in the protests of the 1960s and becomes sensitized to the injustices that society inflicts on her people. She aids the Lakota in their struggle for their rights: a struggle that culminates in an armed standoff with US government forces at the site of an 1890 massacre.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsRobert RedfordNorman ZigrossiRobert SikmaThis film describes the events surrounding a 1975 shootout at the Pine Ridge reservation in S. Dakota where two FBI agents were killed.
- DirectorJonathan WacksStarsGary FarmerA MartinezJoanelle RomeroTwo Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of one of them who has been framed and arrested in Santa Fe. On the way, they begin to reconnect to their spiritual heritage.
- DirectorJennifer Wynne FarmerValerie Red-HorseStarsValerie Red-HorseYvonne RussoIrene BedardThree Native American sisters (Red-Horse, Bedard, Guerrero) decide to try to sell a line of cosmetics they call Naturally Native, based on old tribal remedies, only to have to fight an uphill battle with racist business people. The film is actually Red-Horse's comment on her fight with the movie industry to get her films made and this film is the first to be totally financed by an Indian tribe, Connecticut's Mashantucket tribe.
- DirectorTerry MacyDaniel HartStarsCharlie HillDarrell KippBearhead SwaneyThis award-winning documentary deals with the popularization and commercialization of Native American spiritual traditions by Non-Indians. Important questions are asked of those seeking to commercially exploit Tribal rituals and sacred ceremonies...and those vested with safeguarding sacred ways. The film represents a wide range of voices from Native communities, and speaks to issues of cultural appropriation with humor, righteous anger, and thoughtful insight.
- DirectorStuart MargolinStarsGraham GreeneTom JacksonSheila TouseyWhen photographer Will returns home for his mother's funeral he gets more than he bargained for from a strange cast of characters on the reservation.
- DirectorPeter BrattStarsAlfre WoodardJesse BorregoSalma HayekThree muralists (one Chicano, one Black, one American Indian) and the socially-maladjusted cousin of the Chicano muralist set off on a road trip with the intent of painting their images on the White House. Along the way they meet a mysterious Black woman. Together, these four men and one woman encounter racism, sexism, internal conflicts, and finally redemption as they discover their common humanity and their internal ability to conquer the societal ills that effect them all.
- DirectorChris EyreStarsHarrison LoweJames DalgaiAdam BeachThe story revolves around the legend of the skin walkers or "S Dubs", a folk legend from Utah about the spirits of murdered Indians returning to seek revenge upon those who disrespect the land.
- DirectorGeorge McCowanDaryl DukeStarsJan-Michael VincentMarilyn HassettChief Dan GeorgeThe Westernized grandson of a shaman returns to the wilderness to learn more about his Native American heritage. When he encounters powerful evil spirits, he enlists the aid of his lover and a local chief to stop the spirits.
- DirectorLee TamahoriStarsRena OwenTemuera MorrisonMamaengaroa Kerr-BellA family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.
- DirectorTim WolochatiukStarsLyna HartGlen AnaquodAlicia HamelinFor over 130 years till 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada's First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian faiths. There were 80 of these 'residential schools' across the country. Most children were sent to faraway schools that separated them from their families and traditional land. These children endured brutality, physical hardship, mental degradation, and the complete erasure of their culture. The schools were part of a wider program of assimilation designed to integrate the native population into 'Canadian society.' These schools were established with the express purpose 'To kill the Indian in the child.' Told through their own voices, 'We Were Children' is the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.
- DirectorAlanis ObomsawinStarsAlanis ObomsawinSimilar to her 2012 documentary, The People of the Kattawapiskak River, which detailed the housing crisis of the Awattapiskak First Nations people, Alanis Obomsawin's Hi-Ho Mistahey. examines this community with a shrewd political eye, aiming to raise awareness about the lack of resources allotted by the government for education. Her voice, one of sensitivity and political necessity, is a vital part of the Canadian narrative, bringing attention to marginalized people with an eye for detail and community introspection, humanizing a subject that, for those in mainstream culture, is more of a peripheral social grievance than something for active consideration. In 2000, the elementary school in Awattapiskak was shut down after the land was determined to be toxic. Since then, the students have been schooled in outdoor portables with heating and vermin issues, making it difficult to maintain a dedicated staff and offer the children the same comforts and amenities that children in more centralized regions are afforded. The government had initially allotted funds for a new school but, as noted in Hi-Ho Mistahey!, the budget for education within the Department of Indian Affairs isn't specifically protected and can be utilized for other issues if they're deemed more critical. Frustrated with endless financial delays, the community, spearheaded by teen activist Shannen Koostachin, reached out to children across Canada, creating a grassroots awareness campaign throughout the schools, forcing parliament to listen through sheer volume. This story, in itself, is quite inspirational and captivating as a cultural assessment of the ever-changing Canadian landscape. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly complex or involving story, which is why Hi-Ho Mistahey. tends to feel directionless and unfocused. Amidst the core narrative about this movement, which, tragically, was started by someone who couldn't see it through after losing her life in a car accident, Obomsawin inserts several interviews with community members about topics like meat smoking and suicide statistics without specifically relating it back to the central topic. Obviously, the aim is to paint a picture of the community and determine why it's important to keep children there rather than have them go off to the city to study, but it plays more as a series of disjointed sob stories to make saccharine what is already an essential dialogue with enough emotional weight to sustain itself. And since there's little stylization or sense of pacing, it leaves everything feeling bloated and amateurish. Still, Obomsawin's determination to keep the world aware of the social and political issues affecting smaller communities in rural areas is commendable. She's clever enough to acknowledge that these plights stem from a Canadian cultural tendency to deny our less than flattering pass without dwelling on it or tossing out glib or dismissive comments about the urban lifestyle. It's this integrity and determination that helps make a difference.