Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
At the beginning of the 19th century, white settlers regularly make and break treaties with the Native American inhabitants to gain possession of vast hunting grounds at ludicrously low prices without any bloodshed. Harrison, Governor of Indiana, has made and broke no less than fifteen such treaties, driving increasing numbers of Indians out to the infertile West. To put a stop to this criminal practice, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh tries to unite the Native Americans.
An Indian arouses envy for his expertise in hunting animals without ruining their skins, for his wisdom and his kindness.
An unhappy teenager hits the road to meet up with a man in California whom she barely knows. Along the way the naive teen stumbles around trying to do her best to get by, but eventually falls prey to some unseemly characters willing to take advantage of her.
When a man adopts three black bear cubs, he faces one of the hardest decisions of his life. Set in the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada, Robert Leslie struggles to keep his bears safe and maintain relations with native Americans and park rangers.
A young Native child struggles with her identity.
The Daughter of Dawn is a silent Western, and one of the few films of the silent era to have an entirely Native American cast. It tells the story of a Kiowa woman and her lover, his feats of bravery, and their trials at the hands of a jealous rival and Comanche warriors. Completed in 1920, it was only shown a few times before being considered lost. Five reels of the movie were found in 2005, and restored by the Oklahoma Historical Society in 2012.
Scientists mount an expedition to find a Bigfoot-type creature.
When his tribesmen begin killing off white settlers, Young Eagle is opposed to the carnage. In order to assure a lasting peace, however, the chief must deal with renegade Apache Black Wolf.
A white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.
The happy life of an Eskimo is disastrously changed when he mingles with an unscrupulous white trader.
The carefree childhood existence of an Indigenous brother and sister is torn apart when the sister is forced to attend a Residential School far from home.
The commander of a Texan fort in the Civil War refuses to surrender to the Northerners, and tries to buy the local Indian tribe chief's daughter. The sage man refuses, and the Southerners massacre the tribe and abduct the young squaw anyway. The noble squaw manages to escape, and hides out with a rough rancher, who dislikes Indians, but hates the Southerners more. The odd couple joins forces, and tactics, to exert ultimate vengeance on the men at the fort.
Shot around the breathtaking coastline of B.C.'s Howe Sound, Whale Music is the triumphant adaptation of Paul Quarringaton's Governor General's Award-winning novel about the redemption of a faded rock star through love and music. Richard J. Lewis' exploration of the reclusive musician's efforts to create a piece of music that will summon the whales is a sensory and emotional tour de force. Written by Vancouver Film Festival, Handbook
In a small town in Patagonia (Southern Argentina), a Mapuche Indian chief sets a tourist complex under construction on fire. He denies all attempts to defend himself. Locked up, he waits for the arrival of "Caleuche," the Ship (Nave) of Fools (de los locos), a mythical figure of his ancestral strength which "made" him start the fire. An appointed lawyer (a white woman) comes to the chief's defence, alleging the chief had acted in self-defense as the white man was building commercial structures on the sacred burial grounds of his ancestors, and continued doing so even after heated protests.
A plane crash survivor draws upon the sensibilities of his Native American ancestry in order to stay alive in a rugged outland.
Life is a question of luck.
Jesse Threebears is a troubled Native-American teen who has been tossed from one foster home to the next since his mother died when he was an infant. Finally, he is taken in by his grandfather who, after a ten year stint in prison, is living on the reservation. With the help of his grandfather and several others who live on the reservation, Jesse begins to learn about his heritage and how to come to terms with his troubled life.
Three Kiowa boys attempt to escape a government boarding school in 1891, Oklahoma.
Pauls a lonely man. Locked up in his desolate life he struggles to face reality. He's forced to change his views when it's too late.