September Movie  Reviews
From the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival

Rocks at Whiskey Trench

Rocks At Whiskey Trench is a documentry covering the Mohawks fight to keep their ancestral land from being turned into a golf course and condominium building.

 I'm totally against turning cemetery into anything. Ours, the Indians, anyones. It is a crime to disturb the dead. R.A.W.T. however, was trying to show the battle against the native Indians and the redneck French Canadians. The Indians were trying to save their land. The movie in my eyes showed that they wanted their cake and to eat it too, yet the bleeding hearts didn't seem to see anything wrong with the way that both sides were portrayed.

We are shown the Indians blocking the bridge to their reservation. The bridge was used by a great deal of through traffic which was forced to take the long way around. We are also shown that the Indians who were the ones who barricaded the bridge, were also pissed off that they were not allowed to uses the bridge as a way to get supplies to and from the reservation. They then turned this into a situation that the Canadians were against them. If they didn't barricade the bridge to keep people out, they would have been able to bring things in.

We see way too much testosterone on both sides flowing. Surely discussions and peaceful sit-ins could have prevented the violence which followed. The army was shown in place, obviously there to try  to keep the peace. We see the Indians throwing the first punch, yet the Canadians are still portrayed as the bad guys.

It goes to show that if you consider yourself the underdog and play that role to your benefit in society, then you can make a documentary out of anything. The Montreal Film Festival turned down screening the movie. To all the bleeding hearts who feel that it was because of the content, consider this; maybe it was because it wasn't a good documentary, having little continuity, and showing too little explanation of the real events leading up to the wrong doings and what was the end result to the attempts to protect the 'sacred land.'

Lets look to the future and stop making the youth of today pay for the wrong doings of the past. There is no way to right the past wrongs and the future means moving forward and ahead, not constantly looking back.

~Sheila, September 2000

Never have I been so irritated and pissed off by a film. It was so bad I had to leave the Q and A session for fear of being a bit too vocal in my disgust. The documentary, I think, was trying to garner sympathy and support for the Indians of Kanhawake. All it did was show me that the people of this community are complete idiots that want everything handed to them. People in this documentary were quoted as saying they were ready, prepared and willing to battle to the death for this land. They were preparing for battle, yet seemed insulted and enraged that people would want to fight back.

Rocks at Whiskey Trench focuses on the struggle between the Mohawk Indians and the Canadian government and people in 1990. Basically this is how it went:

Mohawks claim the land they are on is their sacred land. Throughout the years the acreage that is “theirs” is decreased by the expansion of freeways, bridges and economic growth by the Canadians.
In 1990 the Mohawks and Canadians are embroiled in a battle over more of their land used for expansion in Kanehsatake, near Montreal.
The Mohawks are frustrated by the lack of progress in negotiations. In support, the Mohawks of Kanhawake decide to take action to protect “their” land. They completely barricade their community and block the Mercier Bridge, a major thoroughfare for thousands of travelers and commuters.
Although the Mohawks have blocked all passage into their area, they are upset by the difficulties they encounter bringing in food and supplies.
After 6 weeks, with the Canadian Military moving in, the community evacuates its women, children and elderly.
The convoy of evacuees are met with an angry crowd that begin to throw stones at the passing vehicles in an area known as Whiskey Trench. The film’s main focus is on the Mohawk’s confusion and incomprehension of how they could be met with such anger and hatred.
After nearly two weeks the evacuated people return home. The standoff continues.
The Canadian Military finally move onto Mohawk land. They were met by protests, threats and stones. As one Mohawk said “We threw stones. We learned that at Whiskey Trench”. Good argument. Sorry Mom, you’ve been wrong all of these years. I guess two wrongs DO make a right.
Although the military is being attacked, and they are heavily armed, they do not fight back. Instead, they make a retreat.

I think the battles still continue today. It seems as though there is no progress made. I don’t know how there could be. The Mohawk’s leader has said that they as a community do not need to be their own country. They do not need to be sovereign by law. They are in their hearts. Huh? If you want to obey your own laws, be your own country and be completely independent of the government around you, good for you. Do it. Become your own completely self-sufficient, self-governing land. But then don’t ask and expect for sympathy and support from others. Maybe if everyone started acting like adults there could be peaceful progress.

~Trixie, September 2000

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