Beans

“This is Mohawk territory!”

Her name is Tekahentahkhwa, but everyone calls her Beans. Full of confidence, the twelve-year-old Mohawk girl is pursuing her dream of getting accepted into the renowned Queen Heights Academy. Yet with the outbreak of the Oka crisis in Quebec, Canada in the summer of 1990, her world is turned upside down. The media is filled with reports of the Mohawk people‘s fight for their rights, their peaceful protests answered with racial violence. Roadblocks are erected. There are deaths and injuries. In the face of all this, Beans becomes even more passionately engaged in her people’s struggle – especially once she comes under the influence of April, a tough older girl from her community. Interspersed with archival footage, this unequivocally political film tells a story of personal and social emancipation.
by Tracey Deer
with Kiawentiio, Rainbow Dickerson, Violah Beauvais, Paulina Alexis, D’Pharaoh McKay Woon-A-Tai
Canada 2020 English, Mohawk, French 91’ Colour recommendation: 12 years and up

Part of the Berlinale Summer Special

With

  • Kiawentiio (Beans, Tekahentahkhwa)
  • Rainbow Dickerson (Lily)
  • Violah Beauvais (Ruby)
  • Paulina Alexis (April)
  • D’Pharaoh McKay Woon-A-Tai (Hank)

Crew

Director Tracey Deer
Screenplay Tracey Deer, Meredith Vuchnich
Cinematography Marie Davignon
Editing Sophie Farkas Bolla
Music Mario Sévigny
Sound Design Sylvain Bellemare
Sound Yann Cleary
Production Design André Chamberland
Costumes Éric Poirier
Make-Up Drew McComber
Casting Maxime Giroux, René Haynes
Assistant Director Pierre Plante
Production Manager Geoffroy S. Patenaude
Producer Anne-Marie Gélinas
Executive Producers Meredith Vuchnich, Justine Whyte

World Sales

WaZabi Films

Tracey Deer

The director has won several prizes for her work, including two Gemini Awards and the Birks Diamond Tribute Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her series Mohawk Girls, for which she was co-creator, director and co-showrunner, has been nominated four times in a row for a Canadian Screen Award. Deer is chair of the board of directors of Women in View, a non-profit organisation that advocates for greater diversity and gender parity in Canadian media. She has also been a mentor on a number of talent development programmes, especially for emerging Indigenous filmmakers.

Filmography

2004 One More River: The Deal That Split the Cree; documentary 2005 Mohawk Girls; documentary 2008 Kanien’keha:ka: Living the Language; documentary · Club Native; documentary 2009 Finding Our Talk; documentary series, season 3, 1 episode 2010 Mohawk Girls; series 2011 Working It Out Together; documentary series, seasons 1-2 2014 Cashing In; series, season 4, 1 episode 2020 Beans

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2021