Kissed by Lightning

The territory of Akwesasne straddles the Canada-U.S. border. When Canadian authorities prohibited the duty-free cross-border passage of personal purchases - a right established by the Jay Treaty of 1794 - Kanien'kéhaka protesters blocked the international bridge between Ontario and New York State.

The new film from celebrated documentarian Alanis Obomsawin (Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance) chronicles the events following the filing of a human-rights complaint by a group of activists, which charged that the federal government's woefully inadequate funding of services for Indigenous children constituted a discriminatory practice.

A priest goes to great lengths in an effort to get a teenage prostitute off the streets.

Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

Gil Cardinal searches for his natural family and an understanding of the circumstances that led to his becoming a foster child. An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this auto-biographical documentary he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her. Considered a milestone in documentary cinema, it addressed the country’s internal colonialism in a profoundly personal manner, winning a Special Jury Prize at Banff and multiple international awards.

Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

In the prehistoric past, Keda, a young and inexperienced hunter, struggles to return home after being separated from his tribe when bison hunting goes awry. On his way back he will find an unexpected ally.

A successful artist looks back with loving memories on the summer of his defining year, 1974. A talented but troubled 18-year-old aspiring artist befriends a brilliant elderly alcoholic painter who has turned his back on not only art but life. The two form what appears to be at first a tenuous relationship. The kid wants to learn all the secrets the master has locked away inside his head and heart. Time has not been kind to the old master. His life appears pointless to him until the kid rekindles his interest in his work and ultimately gives him the will to live. Together, they give one another a priceless gift. The kid learns to see the world through the master's eyes. And the master learns to see life through the eyes of innocence again. This story is based on a real life experience.

Like many Native families, Lena Mahikan grew up in the cycle of abuse. Her father, a residential school survivor, was an alcoholic until he killed himself when Lena was 10. Her mother, only 14 years her senior, turned to the slots. By the time Lena was 15, she was pregnant and, before giving birth, was kicked to the curb by her mom. The cycle continues and Lena is now watching helplessly as her own daughter, Peeka, spirals out of control, landing herself in the hospital following a drug overdose. As a final attempt at survival, Lena decides to return home and face her own mother and a past she’s desperate to escape.

This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband's assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own.

Stoney Point Natives assemble at Ipperwash Provincial Park for what began as a peaceful protest.

An Inuit youth trains to become a great archer in hopes of avenging the killing of his family – but the First Nations attackers were punishing a previous Inuit wrongdoing. Who will end the cycle of violence? THE WHITE ARCHER is an Inuit legend inspired the late James Houston’s beloved children’s book. In Canada’s High Arctic hamlet of Pond Inlet, his son John weaves outdoor adventure and local theatre into a story for all ages.

Two unlikely friends, a teenage stripper from London and a traumatized clown, try to help each other in an uncertain world.

A young Ojibwa girl from 1770 marries a Scottish fur trader and leaves home for the shores of Georgian Bay. Although the union is beneficial for her tribe, it results in hardship and isolation for Ikwe. Values and customs clash until, finally, the events of a dream Ikwe once had unfold with tragic clarity.

The Affair explores the emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah Solloway and Alison Lockhart after the two meet in the resort town of Montauk in Long Island. Noah is a New York City schoolteacher with one novel published (book entitled A Person who Visits a Place) and he is struggling to write a second book. He is happily married with four children, but resents his dependence on his wealthy father-in-law. Alison is a young waitress trying to piece her life and marriage back together in the wake of the tragic death of her child. The story of the affair is told separately, complete with distinct memory biases, from the male and female perspectives.

Well-educated and upper middle class, Maude Findlay is the archetypal feminist of her generation. She lives in suburban Tuckahoe, New York, with her fourth husband, Walter, their divorced daughter, Carol, and grandson Phillip.

Louie De Palma is a cantankerous, acerbic taxi dispatcher in New York City. He tries to maintain order over a collection of varied and strange characters who drive for him. As he bullies and insults them from the safety of his “cage,” they form a special bond among themselves, becoming friends and supporting each other through the inevitable trials and tribulations of life.

The Joy of Painting was an American television show hosted by painter Bob Ross that taught its viewers techniques for landscape oil painting. Although Ross could complete a painting in half an hour, the intent of the show was not to teach viewers "speed painting". Rather, he intended for viewers to learn certain techniques within the time that the show was allotted. The show began on January 11, 1983, and lasted until May 17, 1994, a year before Ross' death.

Four young women are figuring out how to be Mohawk in the 21st century, to find their place in the world and, of course, try to find love. But in a small world where you or your friends have dated everyone on the rez, or the hot new guy turns out to be your cousin, it ain’t that simple. Torn between family pressure, tradition, obligation and the intoxicating freedom of the “outside world,” this fabulous foursome is on a mission to find happiness… and to find themselves.

After his alcohol-fuelled 18th birthday party, Cédric gets into a spectacular car crash as he drives home with his 17-year-old childhood friend, Sarah. That night, the two teens and their parents see their worlds turn upside down. The accident sets both families on a long and tortuous path they didn’t expect. The tragedy forces them all to dig deep inside themselves as they struggle to survive and even grow stronger, through a series of medical, legal and emotional challenges. Their story is rooted in a quest for truth, as they try to come to grips with what really happened on that fateful night, and how these kids are dealing with it.

T. and T. is a Canadian-produced television series, in production from 1987 to 1990. The series premiered in first-run syndication in January 1988, later moving to new episodes on the Family Channel in 1990. It was a starring vehicle for Mr. T, after the cancellation of The A-Team in 1986. The series’ theme song was performed by Merry Clayton. The opening voice-over set-up the premise:

The chaotic and violent struggle to control wealth and power in the North American fur trade in late 18th century Canada. Told from multiple perspectives, Frontier takes place in a world where business negotiations might be resolved with close-quarter hatchet fights, and where delicate relations between native tribes and Europeans can spark bloody conflicts.

1491: The Untold Story of the Americas before Columbus is based on the book “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” by Charles C. Mann (Knopf, 2005). It brings to life the complexity, diversity and interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Presented from an Indigenous-perspective the series is a journey along a timeline that dates from 20,000 years ago to 1491. The origins and history of ancient Indigenous societies in North, Central and South America are interpreted by leading Indigenous scholars and cultural leaders in the fields of archaeology, art history, ethnology, genetics, geology, and linguistics.

After Forever is the story of Brian and Jason, a 50-ish New York City gay couple, who have it all until they don't.

An Indigenous teen struggles to support his dysfunctional family as myth, magic, and monsters slowly infiltrate his life.

The story of an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley, who inherits a large cattle ranch in Australia after her husband dies. When Australian cattle barons plot to take her land, she joins forces with a cattle drover to protect her ranch.

Ryan McMahon is on a quest to uncover the truth in the deaths of numerous Indigenous people in Thunder Bay, Ontario – a city known as the homicide and hate crime capital of Canada.

As part of a racist government policy now known as the Sixties Scoop, Bezhig Little Bird is removed from her home in Long Pine Reserve in Saskatchewan and adopted into a Montréal Jewish family at the age of five, becoming Esther Rosenblum. Now in her 20s, Bezhig longs for the family she lost and is willing to sacrifice everything to find them.

Sisters Dylan, Bowie and Hendrix Spence must move from rural Manitoba to Winnipeg's north end after the tragic death of their parents. There, the sisters explore the differences that drive us apart and the love that brings us back together.