Watch Kanehsatake, 270 Years of Resistance For Free

the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Plans to expand a golf course into Native American territory leads to a state of siege in Quebec in this intense documentary. Very striking is the way the native Mohawks are treated like terrorists during the siege, with such horrific police brutality that one citizen states "and they call us savages!"; journalists were treated no better either, with one journalist realising that he has to go into military custody if he wants medical treatment. Shocking as all this may be, the film is structured in an unhelpful manner. It is nearly half an hour in before we are given background information about the Mohawk people and the invasions that lead to the titular 270 years of resistance. This would have better served as an introduction. The film may have also benefited from further highlighting how silly the military intervention is; it is, after all, hard to believe that all the chaos came from a mere few insisting on expanding a golf course. This is in turn makes it an important film as a reminder that mistreatment of native peoples still happens today. This is not the easiest film to watch; it is very gloomy and sometimes a little too angry for its own good, but it is amazing to think how brutal a democratic country like Canada was as recently as less than thirty years ago - or at one Mohawk man says, "this is ridiculous; this is not Russia, this is not Nazi Germany... this is Canada".

I loved it, there is finally something out there to tell about the injustice suffered by the native peoples. I hope that it helps to serve as a beacon to inspire others. To get the entire story and look at all the facts carefully. A previous comment questioned about the shots and so forth well if you look at the credits carefully it lists a LOT of camera operators. Originally this film had more then 6hrs worth of footage due to all the people with a camera working on this. Think of the editing that had to go into this in order to drop it down to the alloted time. The barricades were claimed as being impenetrable but they were necessary and they were strong. They needed to be in order to rival the equipment the military brought in that were a bit of an overkill on the governments part.

My blood boiled watching this movie. I longed to butcher the Canadian soldiers hassling the Mohawks at Oka. I was so ashamed of my country -- lying, deceiving, bullying, stealing, breaking every single promise they made.I was blown away by the patience of the Mohawks. If I were there under those circumstances there is no way I could have restrained myself from attacking the soldiers. The soldiers were just so evil, petty and stupid. The tension is unbearable as the soldiers draw the noose tighter and tighter, when it looked as if their plan might be to to kill everyone even the children and then lie about it, in a reenactment of the old story.The fearlessness of the Mohawk, especially the women, facing armed soldiers was impressive. They were outraged that they were being treated as if in Nazi Germany, and they were not afraid to upbraid the doltish soldiers for their part in it, nothing like the obedient Jews led the gas chambers.I only wish average Americans were as vocal in protecting their civil rights that they have so meekly abandoned to the Patriot Act.

I just came back from a screening of this film for a Canadian film class. Although one can have an understanding that terrible things happen all the time that you never hear about, it's still very disturbing and upsetting to finally see these things for yourself. The standoff documented in this movie occurred only 13 years ago. I guess the liberal 90's have created such a sugar coated view of Canada that the carnage of this movie seem surreal. The media was restricted access to record the events; citizens of the country were completely robbed of their basic rights; and a community sank to very low levels of existence.This film serves as a reminder that one's rights are not as infallible as you are led to believe. The soldiers were pawns throughout the entire ordeal, but that does not excuse their unnecessary acts of violence. Some of the town's people behaved like savages (Throwing stones at Natives leaving the area). I can't understand how people like that can live with themselves. All this over a golf course/ p***ing contest. Watch it if you get the chance, especially if you're patriotic. I still think Canada is among the best places to live in the world. But injustice and idiocy are not easily avoided.