Mohawk Girls

200553 min 3 secFilm: Documentary

G

Direction: Tracey Deer

Production: Joanne RobertsonLinda LudwickChristina FonAdam Symansky (National Film Board of Canada)Catherine BainbridgeErnest WebbSally Bochner

Script: Tracey Deer

Produced by Rezolution Pictures International Inc. in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, with the financial participation of the Film and Television Tax Credit - Gestion SODEC, SODEC - Programmes d'aide aux jeunes créateurs, and The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, in association with APTN, and with the collaboration of Télé-Québec.

The massive Mercier Bridge looms over the eastern end of the Kahnawake reserve carrying commuters into the city of Montreal. For Amy, Lauren and Felicia, three Mohawk teens living in its shadow, the bridge also serves as a constant reminder of the bustling world just beyond the borders of their tiny community.

Like typical teenagers, all three are wrestling with critical decisions about their futures. But for these girls, there is more at stake. The rules on the reserve can be strict and unforgiving. Move away and you risk losing your credibility, or worse, your rights as a Mohawk. Stay and you forego untold experiences and opportunities in the "outside world."

Like nearly half of the teenagers in Kahnawake, filmmaker Tracey Deer utilized government subsidies to attend private school in Montreal. Vowing never to return, she then left the reserve to attend college in the U.S. Now a graduate of Dartmouth University, she has come home to Kahnawake to play a role in the evolution of her community.

With insight, humour and compassion, Deer takes us inside the lives of these three teenagers as they tackle the same issues of identity, culture and family she faced a decade earlier. Like her, they are outspoken, honest and wise beyond their years.

Shot over two years, and interspersed with home videos from Deer's own adolescence, Mohawk Girls provides a surprising inside look at modern Indigenous youth culture. Deeply emotional yet unsentimental, it reveals the hope, despair, heartache and promise of growing up Indigenous at the beginning of the 21st century.

Availability


Subject categories


  • Indigenous Peoples in Canada (First Nations and Métis) > Adolescents and Young AdultsCultural IdentityQuébec and OntarioReserves
  • Children and Youth > Indigenous Youth
  • Indigenous Studies > History/PoliticsIdentity/SocietyIssues and Contemporary Challenges
  • Family Studies/Home Economics > Relationships

Credits


writer
Tracey Deer
director
Tracey Deer
producer
Joanne Robertson
Linda Ludwick
Christina Fon
Adam Symansky
executive producer
Catherine Bainbridge
Ernest Webb
Sally Bochner
director of photography
Tracey Deer
additional camera
Bill Kerrigan
Alan Kohl
Pablo Aravena
Francis Miquet
Alexandre Bussière
Steve Bonspiel
sound
Marco Fania
Lynne Trépanier
additional sound
Steve Bonspiel
Tod Van Dyk
Lisa Dargensio
John Dee Delormier
narration
Tracey Deer
editor
Patricia Tassinari
additional editing
Tracey Deer
Simon Webb
logging
Tiffany Deer
online editing
Tony Manolikakis
sound edit
Mona Laviolette
sound mix
Bruno Bélanger
Mona Laviolette
original music
Mona Laviolette
Linda Ludwick
accountant
Linda Ludwick
producer assistant
Megan Thorne
Jacob Kent
production assistant
Brian Webb
post-production assistant
Jacob Kent
translation
Claire Valade
Natalie Dubois
Anne-Marie Gauthier
additional translation
Sonia Poisson
dialect coach
Sonia Poisson
Danielle Valade
consultant
Mike Ryan
travel arrangements
Beesum Communications
unit photographer
Georges Khayat
Tiffany Deer
insurance
B.F. Lorenzetti
Lucie Trottier
audit
Rapp Hecht Heft
Raymond Lamoureux
legal
Danielle Dicaire