Weekly Indigenous Film Series: Rocks at Whiskey Trench (Obomsawin, 2000)

Weekly Indigenous Film Series | Thursday, October 12th  4-6pm | Room 233, Education Building, 3700 McTavish St

Rocks at Whiskey Trench (Alanis Obomsawin (dir.), 2000, 105 min., NFB)

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 remember the terror as windows shattered around them. A painstakingly researched social document, the film looks back at the events surrounding the August 28 attack, and delves into the history of Kahnawake and the consequences of the appropriation of land that have shrunk its territory by more than two-thirds over the last 300 years.

McGill's Faculty of Education and The P. Lantz Initiative for Excellence in Education and the Arts present the 2017 season of the Weekly Indigenous Film Series, facilitated by Lori Beavis and supported by McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education and the Institute for Human Development and Well-Being (IHDW).