Beans

As an American aware of our troubled past with Native American history and the founding of our nation, I was not as familiar with Canada's own racist background.

Surrounding the real life standoff between the government and the native population of Quebec around the construction of a golf course on Indian burial ground is the backdrop of a parellel story of a young girl growing up in the midst of chaos.

Kiawentiio is the actress in the lead role and she is magnificent in the part. Her hard driving mother only wants the best for her, including her attendance at a mostly white school.

She meets a neighbor who attempts to toughen her up and they form an unlikely friendship.

I recommend this film as a good educational tool and for the lead performance.

This movie is phenomenal! And I wish that more people were able to see it, either on Netflix or Hulu or whatever other streaming platform that allows for more of an audience.

I know a lot of people who are dying to watch it but just don't have the ability to purchase it or live outside the U. S. so it's a little bit more difficult.

Hopefully in the next year or so some streamer will pick it up so more people have the chance to see it! It deserves a lot more recognition and I have no doubt that it will do well once it is available to stream, eventually!

It is a REALLY good movie.

The child/adolescence point of view is well worked, and, although Beans, her family and other characters did not exist, the Oka situation was real, and was one of the many ugly (to say the list) faces of Canada/Quebec.

But, please, keep in mind that the Oka trouble took place in 1990, and the Mohawks involved hadn't politics, money and other ideologies in mind.

They just wanted their sacred ground to be respected.

Exactly the opposite of some groups nowadays.

So, if have stomach to see some ugly scenes of violence and discrimination against peacefull people, watch it.

I stopped watching about 2/3 through. The mom, in an overwrought scene, had shortly before driven through the gauntlet of stone-throwing, white yahoos while the police (SQ?) merely watched. But what made me throw in the towel was the way the filmmaker chose to develop the "friendship" between Beans and her rougher peers. That didn't work for me at all. I'm assuming those youthful relationships and the incipient awakening of the heroine from a protected innocence was meant as a metaphor for First Nations society, but I don't know.

The lack of nuance in the storytelling and a lack of historical footage that captured the racism encountered in the course of daily life off-reserve, during the blockade prevented me from feeling what I had hoped for.

Set against the backdrop of the Oka crisis, Beans is a respectful Mohawk teenager applying to go to an exclusive private school. She tries to find her way with new friends as the external situation heats up around her.

It's a compelling coming of age story and a compelling true history story. It's the marrying of the two that the film does struggle from time to time. It feels like the movie is trying to hit all the points of the crisis. Each incident is specifically linked to the real world footage. I don't know if this is based on a real person. I do sense a writer connecting the dots of the story. Beans is a compelling character and she has quite a personal journey. This is a compelling film.