My Name Is Kahentiiosta

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 travelled 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 defence of sacred territory. The third film in Alanis Obomsawin's series on the events of 1990.

In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien'kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for an historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Director Alanis Obomsawin - at times with a small crew, at times alone - spent 78 days behind Kanien'kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protestors, the Québec police and the Canadian army. Released in 1993, this landmark documentary has been seen around the world, winning over a dozen international awards and making history at the Toronto International Film Festival where it became the first documentary to ever win the Best Canadian Feature Award. Jesse Wente, Director of Canada's Indigenous Screen Office, has called it a "watershed film in the history of First Peoples cinema.".

Stories of resistance, strength and perseverance are laid bare in this examination of a dark day in Canadian history. At the height of tensions at Oka, Quebec, in 1990, Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) women, children and Elders fled their community of Kahnawake out of fear for their safety. Once past the Canadian Army that surrounded their home, they were assaulted by angry non-Indigenous protesters who pelted their convoy with rocks. This visceral display of hatred and violence - rarely seen so publicly in Canada - shocked the nation and revealed the severity of the dangers that faced the Kanien'kehá:ka in their struggle to defend a sacred site. This film is the fourth in Alanis Obomsawin's landmark series on the Mohawk resistance at Oka that would become a pivot point in contemporary relationships between Indigenous nations and Canada.