Top 10 Films To Watch
Bones of Crows
Cree code talker Aline Spears survives her traumatic past in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight against systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse.
Director: Marie Clements
Stars: Grace Dove, Phillip Forest Lewitski, Rémy Girard, Karine Vanasse, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Michelle Thrush, Gail Maurice, Carla Rae, Cara Gee, Summer Testawich, Glen Gould, Tanaya Beatty
Monkey Beach
In an effort to turn her life around, a young indigenous woman returns to her hometown and discovers how dysfunctional her family has become.
Director: Loretta Todd
Stars: Grace Dove, Adam Beach, Tina Lameman
Birds Who Fear Death
Two brothers, disinherited and desperate for cash, journey into the Canadian wilds to find themselves, their people and their fortune.
Director: Sanjay Patel
Stars: Adam Beach, Graham Greene, Simon Baker, Carmen Moore, Tanaya Beatty, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Michelle Thrush, Huxley Fisher
Powwow Highway
Two Cheyenne Indian friends with very different outlooks on life set off on a road trip. Philbert Bono (Gary Farmer) is a spiritual seeker trying to find the answers to life’s questions; his pal, Buddy Red Bow (A Martinez), is a realist who sees the world in black-and-white terms. When Buddy’s sister is jailed in Santa Fe, N.M., the mismatched duo hit the highway in Philbert’s dilapidated 1964 Buick and experience wild twists and turns on their journey of self-discovery.
Director: Jonathan Wacks
Stars: A Martinez, Joanelle Romero, Gary Farmer, Amanada Wyss. Features: Wes Studi, Graham Green
Wind River
Cory Lambert is a wildlife officer who finds the body of an 18-year-old woman on an American Indian reservation in snowy Wyoming. When the autopsy reveals that she was raped, FBI agent Jane Banner arrives to investigate. Teaming up with Lambert as a guide, the duo soon find that their lives are in danger while trying to solve the mystery of the teen’s death.
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal, Martin Sensmeier, Gil Birmingham, Kelsey Asbille
Catch The Fair One
A former champion boxer embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister.
Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Stars: Kali Reis, Shelly Vincent, Kendall Morris, Kimberly Norris
Indian Horse
Follows the life of Native Canadian Saul Indian Horse as he survives residential school and life amongst the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey player, Saul must find his own path as he battles stereotypes and alcoholism.
Director: Stephen S. Campanelli
Stars: Ajuawak Kapashesit, Wayne Baker, Sladen Peltier
The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open
The film centres on a chance interaction between two Indigenous women of contrasting lived experience and socio-economic position, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and Rosie (Violet Nelson), as they navigate the effects of intimate partner violence.[ The majority of the film consists of a single, continuous long take.
Director: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn
Stars: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Violet Nelson
Night Raiders
A mother joins an underground band of vigilantes to try to rescue her daughter from a state-run institution.
Director: Danis Goulet
Stars: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Alex Tarrant
Woman Walks Ahead
Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples’ struggle over the rights to their land.
Director: Susanna White
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Michael Greyeyes.
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