Best movies like 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.

A fashionable contemporary art gallerist in Chelsea, New York falls for a brooding new music composer in this comic satire of the state of contemporary art.

A young wife and mother, bored with day-to-day life in New York City and neglected by her husband, slips into increasingly outrageous fantasies: her mother breaking into the apartment, an explorer's demonstration of tribal fertility music at a party causing strange transformations, and joining terrorists to plant explosives in the Statue of Liberty.

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.

An artist follows a woman from California to New York, where he boxes for her mobster husband.

Snooty heiress decides to track down her dead sister's kids, who are living a Bohemian life with their uncle in Greenwich Village. Once she finds them, she discovers that the Bohemian life is fun and free of the constraints her country-club life places on her. But she decides to take the uncle to court anyway to free him from the kids so he can paint.

An unexplained, local split in the atmosphere causes a series of total unpredictable, yet devastating tornadoes. Rookie fireman Brian Flynn gets trapped in the underground sewage with his girlfriend, deputy mayor James 'Jim' Lawrence and climatologist Dr. Cassie Lawrence's niece Lori. Mayor Leonardo of New York initially refuses to pay proper attention to the phenomenon, a 'reelection threat', so the alert status remains too low for long. Atypical lightning discovered inside tornadoes adds unprecedented dangers. The Lawrences and aeronautics renegade Dr. Lars Liggenhorn conceive a possible solution by launching rockets, but NASA's Dr. Quinn overrules them, imposing standard silver iodine.

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.

In a quaint and quiet island community off the coast of Maine, Susan is a young widow suffering from deep grief for the loss of her husband, Ron. Two escaped convicts suffer from their own kind of deep grief at the loss of their diamonds stolen in a heist they participated in the year before, spear-headed by Susan's now late husband. One of the convicts, poses as an old college friend of Ron's enabling him to get close to a still vulnerable Susan and even closer to the diamonds.

When Jimmy leaves his reservation for the lures of city life, he finds himself confronted with a future he could never have imagined.

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

The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.

During a harsh Montréal winter, an elementary-school class is left reeling after its teacher commits suicide. Bachir Lazhar, a charismatic Algerian immigrant, steps in as the substitute teacher for the classroom of traumatized children. All the while, he must keep his personal life tucked away: the fact that he is seeking political refuge in Québec – and that he, like the children, has suffered an appalling loss.

A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.

A struggling painter is possessed by satanic forces after he and his young family move into their dream home in rural Texas.

The life story of the famous pianist and band-leader of the 1930s and 1940s.

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.

When a young boy's family is killed by the mob, their tough neighbor Gloria becomes his reluctant guardian. In possession of a book that the gangsters want, the pair go on the run in New York.

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.

The life and art of Christopher Pratt. 'Canada's most famous living painter' - The Globe & Mail. This is the first feature-length documentary that Christopher Pratt has agreed to participate in. An honest, funny, eloquent, bizarre, and sometimes unsettling account of his life and art, and an extremely important cultural document.

When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.

On a summer day in the 1950s, a native girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in her Cree language. When the girl arrives at her destination, she undergoes a transformation that will turn the woman’s gentle voice into a howl of anger and pain.

Elliot Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in his home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.

An acclaimed novelist struggles to write an analysis of love in one of three stories, each set in a different city, that detail the beginning, middle and end of a relationship.

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.

John Douglas, a high-society playboy, is a cynic concerning the women of his social set, and has a pictured ideal of the girl of his dreams. Wising to avoid the upcoming social season, he hops a freighter bound for the Orient. It sinks in mid-ocean and he, as the sole survivor, is washed upon a island, where he is rescued by Nia, daughter of the tribal chief, Neto.John is puzzled as all of the tribe are white people, but he learns from the tribal chief they are descendant's of English-origin who also are on the island because of a ship wreck a few hundred years ago.

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.

After a terrible accident, a psychatrist has to help Bruce to regain his memory. In flashbacks we learn that his family had to flee from New York after his father uncovered a large case of corruption. Bruce didn't know this for most of his life, until he found a passport with a different name in it. After the first shock he tries to continue living like a normal teenager. Unknowingly his cute little girlfriend "Patrick" brings them in danger..

Broadway's most successful producer, John Forrester, is deeply in love with his wife Margaret and dreams of the future when his son Jack will step into his shoes. He sails to England to produce a show but the ship strikes a derelict wreckage and is sinking rapidly. In the ensuing wild panic, Forrester saves many lives, until finally, panic stricken by sudden fear, he dons a woman's clothes and is among the rescued. On the coast of Newfouldland, the villagers, not aware of his true identity, curse him but he is befriended by Alec who helps him conceal his identity. With a planned story of his survival, he returns to New York but cannot face his family or friends after he sees the plaque to his heroism on his New York theatre. Deciding to remain thought of as dead, he becomes a derelict himself, surviving on odd jobs as he watches from afar his now-grown son begin his career as a producer.

Lisa Spinelli is a Staten Island teacher who is unusually devoted to her students. When she discovers one of her five-year-olds is a prodigy, she becomes fascinated with the boy, ultimately risking her family and freedom to nurture his talent.

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.

Explores the sensitive, and tense, relationship between life on an First Nations reservation and life in the outside world. When Native Canadian Silas Crow is forced to write a personal essay in order to get a much-desired job, he tells the story of the rape and murder of an Indian girl by a drunken thug. When the killer received a lenient two-year sentence for manslaughter, the First Nations community felt shock and anger—and tried desperately to deal with the after-effects of this lack of justice.

The film spans from Hepburn's early childhood to the 1950s which details her life as a Dutch ballerina, coming to grips with her parents' divorce, and enduring life in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. She then settles in the U.S. where she succeeds in making it big as a movie actress, in such movies as Breakfast at Tiffany's.

A spirited artist with a mysterious bucket list gets a commission to paint a mural on a new hospital wing in a charming community. When she finds herself falling for the handsome architect designing the addition, she must decide if she can trust him with her list, and the painful memory behind it, or if he’ll break her heart and prove that it’s better to be alone than to be close to someone who will leave.

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

A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love on first sight and immediately get married. She loves his outrageous behaviour, his strange room-mate and the best apartment poverty can buy.

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.

As maid of honor, Olivia plans her best friend’s bridal shower at a ranch where handsome rancher Travis shows her that life, and love, could be great on a ranch.

Beck, a single mom, lives in Six Nations, Canada. After her mother’s death, she abandons her dream of becoming a Mohawk language teach- er, and an unhealthy lifestyle leads to a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes. The ghost of Tom Longboat, a sports legend of the early 1900s, appears to her. He teaches Beck to become an honor runner, dedicating each run to an aspect of creation or a special person in her life. With Tom’s help, Beck is able to turn her life around.

Anne Crandall is the mayor of a small town in Vermont. Her deceased husband had been the mayor for years and when he died, she was left to carry on and to raise his daughter from his first marriage. She lives with the daughter, her father-in-law and a housekeeper. In the town square, there was a statue of her late husband and every year since his death, they have an anniversary celebration there. This year during a thunderstorm, the statue is hit by lightning and the head falls off. The daughter insists that a new statue be erected instead of patching the old one. Mayor Crandall is sent to New York to interview the prospective sculptor, George Corday.

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

On the way home from an art gallery featuring her work, a talented artist, Ali, her husband and their young child get into a car accident. The woman's husband and child die on impact, while the woman survives, but loses her eyesight. At her doctor's suggestion, Ali hires a caretaker named Jeff to help her adjust to life as a blind woman, and upon returning home, Jeff's aid proves to be indispensable in helping her acclimate; Ali even meets and quickly befriends her new neighbor, Linda. It is soon apparent, however, that Jeff is becoming increasingly possessive and jealous of Ali, and his obsession rapidly turns violent when Ali decides she needs less of his assistance because she is ready to resume living independently. Unsurprisingly, Jeff does not take the request well, and Ali is soon forced to use her remaining senses to fight for her life.

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.

Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium.

Mathieu is a brilliant neurosurgeon whose perfect life is falling apart. Impending divorce, job loss, substance abuse, and a mid-life crisis are all factors that can cause him to go off the rails. In addition, the sudden death of his father forces him to return home to Anishiinabe territory, a place he has tried to avoid since his youth. Nevertheless, Mathieu agrees to go and deposit his father's ashes in the heart of their ancestral territory and wishes to find himself at the same time. The break away from the city promises to be a nice getaway until Mathieu realizes that he is now the prey of an evil creature known as the Wendigo. Mathieu's pilgrimage quickly becomes an unimaginable nightmare that will change him forever. Like it or not, our vices always catch up with us eventually.

Atikamekw Suns is based on the tragic true story of five young people from the Atikamekw First Nation community of Matawan, Quebec who were found dead in a truck in a river in 1977, and the apathy of the authorities investigating their deaths. The film chronicles the police force’s reluctance or inability to pinpoint whether this was a simple accident, or an act of racial hatred.

A documentary on New York City’s biggest public art project ever, an installation called “The Gates” by Christo and Jeanne Claude.