(Canada, 82 min.)
Written and directed by Mélanie Harrier, Olivier Higgins
Any Canadian documentary that confronts the Oka crisis and
even mentions the word “Kanehsatake” inevitably invites comparison to Alanis
Obomsawin’s landmark doc Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. Kanehsatake,
arguably the definitive film on the liminal space indigenous communities are
forced to occupy within Canadian culture, contains some of the most provocative
and necessarily confrontational arguments within Canadian documentary. It’s a
tough act for any Canadian film to follow while tackling the subject,
especially when the subject itself invokes its predecessor’s name. Québékoisie might not have the same
cocktail of passion and rage as Obomsawin’s doc does, but the memory of Kanehsatake nevertheless permits Québékoisie resonance since it’s
baffling to think that the same conversation needs to be had over two decades
since the Oka Crisis and Obomsawin’s film.
Filmmakers Mélanie Harrier and Olivier Higgins trace the roots of prejudice against indigenous persons in Canada by examining the personal histories of several indigenous persons and some old-stock Quebeckers. Included among the participants is the sister of a police officer who was gunned down in the Oka Crisis and her own testimony offers a remarkably humane perspective on the prejudices that can divide a culture. She also shows how said preconceptions can be overcome through her story of confronting her own ignorance as she revisits the scene of her brother’s death. It’s a tranquil, wooded place, yet she notes that it’s eerily been tainted by bloodshed and hate.
Québékoisie charts
the semantic and socio-historic roots of this prejudice, but the filmmakers
also give ample time to members of the surrounding indigenous communities, mostly
Mohawk and Innu, as they trace their own family histories and reveal the mixed
lineage of much of Canada’s people. This personal and humane film entails
provocative dialogues of exclusion that only seem to be growing in the age of
the Harper government, but Québékoisie
equally notes the resistance to assimilation and cultural erosion in the wake
of the Idle No More movement as indigenous communities rise up, adapt, and
thrive. Harrier and Higgins bookend the film with the pulse of “Electric Pow Wow Drum”
from A Tribe Called Red, and Québékoisie
couldn’t find a better anthem for the endurance of a spirit in the ever-changing
Canadian landscape.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Québékoisie screens in Toronto at the Regent Park Film Festival
on Friday, Nov. 21 at 6:30 pm.
Tickets are free and
may be reserved here.
