Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (No Rating)
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During the summer of 1990, an attempt by a Quebec village's elected officials to appropriate nearby Mohawk territory appeared transparently unjust on any number of legal and ethical levels. But perhaps it was the politicians' trivial--albeit financially significant--motivation for the land grab that forced the Indians to erect a barricade and resist police: Local developers sought to expand a nine-hole golf course to 18, and all those towering pines and burial grounds were most definitely in the way. Producer-director Alanis Obomsawin, an Abenaki Indian, traveled to the Mohawk settlement of Kanehsatake to document the armed standoff and grueling escalation of tensions between the Native people on one side and, ultimately, the Canadian army on the other. The result is a sometimes disjointed, often tense film that reflects the chaotic nature of a nearly three-month-long siege. Obomsawin also captures moments that briefly lighten the mood, as when an Indian warrior examining a food shipment allowed past the barricade observes that government officials are trying to "cholesterol us to death." Facing an adversary with tanks and unlimited supplies, the Mohawks understand that the outcome is never really in doubt, only its severity. Nevertheless, Obomsawin's powerful vignettes and even-handed narration reveal the more subtle victories that can sustain a people who have learned, over the course of centuries, to survive on communal spirit and a profound pride in their ancestry. (John Pribek)
Review by John Pribek
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