270 years of resistance 270 ans de résistance : 4 films

Summary: This 3-DVD box-set includes 4 digitally-remastered films made between 1993 and 2000: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, My Name is Kahentiiosta, Spudwrench Kahnawake Man and Rocks at Whiskey Trench, as well as a 100-page booklet of essays and background information, including photos and press clippings from the era. Kanehsatake: On a hot July day in 1990, an historic confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight and into the Canadian conscience. Director Alanis Obomsawin endured 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks, the Québec police and the Canadian army. A powerful feature-documentary emerges that takes you right into the action of an age-old Aboriginal struggle. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades, providing insight into the Mohawks' unyielding determination to protect their land. Rocks at Whiskey Trench: On August 28, 1990, a convoy of 75 cars left the Mohawk community of Kahnawake and crossed Montreal's Mercier Bridge--straight into an angry mob that pelted the vehicles with rocks. The targets of this violence were Mohawk women, children and elders leaving Kahnawake, in fear of a possible advance by the Canadian army. In Rocks at Whiskey Trench, Mohawks young and old remember the terror as windows shattered around them. Police had orders not to arrest anyone--and though they stood by during the rock-throwing, they were able to prevent the mob from reaching the cars and attacking their occupants. My name is Kahentiiosta: Arrested after the 78-day armed standoff during the 1990 Oka crisis, Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman proud of her centuries-old heritage, is detained four days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government will not accept her Aboriginal name. From the perspective of Kahentiiosta, we witness the arrest and detention of those who withdrew to the Treatment Centre after the Canadian Army advanced, and we learn why Kahentiiosta was prepared to die to protect the land and trees sacred to the Mohawk people of Kanehsatake. Spudwrench--Kahnawake man: Meet Randy Horne, high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people's culture and traditions, he was known as "Spudwrench" during the 1990 Oka crisis. Horne was behind the barricades, resisting the efforts of the municipality of Oka to expand a golf course onto sacred Mohawk land. Horne is one of many Mohawk high steel workers who have traveled the continent, working on some of the world's tallest buildings--but have never lost touch with their roots. Spudwrench--Kahnawake Man is both a portrait of Horne and the generations of daring Mohawk construction workers that have preceded him, and a unique look behind the barricades at one man's impassioned defense of sacred territory.