Gary Farmer

The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague. The term "blood quantum" refers to a colonial blood measurement system that is used to determine an individual's Indigenous status, and is criticized as a tool of control and erasure of Indigenous peoples. The words take on even more provocative implications as the title of Jeff Barnaby's sophomore feature, which grimly depicts an apocalyptic scenario where in an isolated "Mi'gmaq" community discover they are the only humans immune to a zombie plague. As the citizens of surrounding cities flee to the "Mi'gmaq" reserve in search of refuge from the outbreak, the community must reckon with whether to let the outsiders in - and thus risk not just the extinction of their tribe but of humanity, period. The severe and scathing portrait of post-colonial Indigenous life and culture that Barnaby previously captured in the acclaimed Rhymes for Young Ghouls here deftly collides with the iconography and violent hyperbole typical of the zombie genre. The Undead are spectacularly and gruesomely dispatched via samurai swords, chainsaws, shotguns, and makeshift axes, while the living - a terrific ensemble cast led by Michael Greyeyes (Woman Walks Ahead and Fear the Walking Dead) - endure the paranoid pressures that such dire straits foment. In this iteration, however, Barnaby takes full advantage of the canvas zombie films regularly afford for cultural critique, exploring racism, colonialism, and the very real threat of extinction that Indigenous communities have experienced for generations. Further accentuated by arresting animated chapter breaks that instill a cool comic-book aesthetic to its horrific proceedings, Blood Quantum is as powerful an entry into the annals of zombie cinema as the devastating conclusion to George Romero's 1968 original Night of the Living Dead, and a meaningful demonstration of how marginalized voices - when given the opportunity - can resurrect a tired genre with incendiary new life. —Toronto International Film Festival

After nearly being caught on a routine burglary, master safe-cracker Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) decides the time has finally come to retire from his illegal activities and focus on running his Montreal jazz club. Nick was robbing a necklace from a safe in a rich mansion, which was the venue of a party downstairs. 2 random guests walked into the room to have sex, and Nick barely managed to hide in time. The guy left after the woman changed her mind, but then she noticed Nick's equipment lying on the ground. Nick manages to control her before she raised an alarm and had her back facing him, so she did not see his face. Nick escaped in his van and then crossed over into Canada in a boat. Nick has an elaborate set up to keep his clandestine life completely isolated from his regular identity as a club owner in Montreal. Nick's flight attendant girlfriend, Diane (Angela Bassett), encourages this decision, promising to fully commit to their relationship if he does indeed go straight. Nick, however, is lured into taking one final score by his fence Max (Marlon Brando). Max says that the buyer for the necklace died and now it would take more time to pay Nick his cut and offers him $4 million for his next job. Max introduces Nick to Jack Teller (Edward Norton), an ambitious, albeit foolhardy, thief. Nick was very reluctant as the job is in Montreal Customs House and he lives in Montreal. Nick is approached by the job's mastermind Jack. Nick sends his associate Burt (Gary Farmer) to intimidate Jack into leaving town, but Jack gains the upper hand and arrives at Nick's home to change his mind. Nick agrees to join the heist in exchange for total control of the operation. The job, negotiated to a $6 million pay off to Nick, is to steal a valuable French scepter, which was being smuggled illegally into the United States through Canada but was accidentally discovered and detained at the Montreal Customs House. The scepter was recovered from a termite infested piano, when it was being burned down, and then kept in safekeeping in the vault room. The vault room itself has no cameras inside. Teller has infiltrated the Custom's House and gained access to information regarding the security by pretending to be an intellectually disabled janitor named Brian. Nick accesses the vault room through the sewage network of the city and finds that the vault room has a camera and an alert system. Nick hires his associate Steven (Jamie Harrold) to hack into the Custom Houses' security system to obtain the bypass codes allowing them to temporarily manipulate the alert protocols of the system during the heist. The security system was set up by a private company named Ironclad. Steven is caught, however, by a corrupt Ironclad system's administrator who extorts Nick for $50,000 for the information. The administrator arranges to meet in a public park, bringing his cousin for protection; tensions arise when the cousin and Jack each reveal they have brought a gun, to Nick's displeasure, but the exchange is made. The safe inside the vault is itself a new model and it tamper proof. If Nick tries to drill through it to gain access, the safe will trigger safety bolts and after that it can only be pried open with a blow torch. After seeing a pressurized beer keg burst open in the street, Nick concocts a plan to defeat the Customs House's impregnable safe. He frustrates Jack by urging patience and refusing to let him be part of the hand-off with Max, despite Jack's insistence. Advised by Burt that the job may be too risky, Nick confronts Max, who confesses that he is deeply in debt to a mob boss but is secretly selling the scepter for $30 million. Max implores him to finish the job, and Nick reluctantly agrees. More complications arise when they're forced to move up their timetable after the Custom's House becomes aware of the true value of the scepter and adds extra CCTV cameras to monitor it while they make preparations to return it to its rightful owners. Jack arrives for his graveyard shift with his gun hidden inside a portable radio. Burt, posing as a garbage truck driver, delivers computer components that Jack uses to bypass the security system. Nick uses a sewer system tunnel to enter the Customs House basement as Jack uses the bypass codes to rig the cameras to shut off while Nick sneaks into the storage room. A fellow janitor stumbles upon Jack, who locks him in a closet at gunpoint. Jack, pretending to be Brian, keeps the guards and other janitors occupied while Nick fills the enormous in-floor safe containing the scepter with water and inserts and then detonates a depth charge to blow off the door. He quickly packs up the scepter in a carrying case to depart, but Jack double crosses him and at gunpoint demands he hand over the scepter. Nick reluctantly gives up the carrying case and seconds later the alarm, rigged by Jack, alerts the entire compound to the heist. Nick darts for the sewer entrance he came in as Jack heads back upstairs, tucking the carrying case inside his janitor jumpsuit and slipping past the incoming police units responding to the burglary. Nick manages to elude the security guards chasing him through the sewer tunnels and escapes. After making it to a bus station to flee the city, Jack calls Nick to gloat and is shocked to discover that Nick has in fact double crossed him by handing him a carrying case containing a fake scepter. Taunting Jack that "every cop in the city" is now looking for him, Nick hangs up and boards a boat with the real scepter as a shocked Jack broods over his situation. Later, Max smiles as he watches a news broadcast reporting a massive manhunt being organized to find Jack, the prime suspect, and an "unknown" accomplice. Nick then meets Diane at the airport as she returns from work, and she happily accepts a kiss and hug from him

Smoke Signals is a humorous yet serious story about Victor, a young man who Director Chris Eyre describes as "trying to forgive his father." The movie gives us a glimpse into the contemporary Native American world, and is created by an almost exclusively Native American cast. The story begins with a glimpse of two baby boys, one barely rescued from a fire which consumes his parents. We briefly see them grow up and learn of the tension between them. They are opposites. The rescued orphan boy Thomas becomes a naive but positive nerd with over-sized glasses, while Victor - who is to embark on a journey of forgiveness towards his father - is proud of his Native American stoicism and seems to find pleasure in confrontation. Victor's father left when he was a boy, and he now learns that his father just died, and his mother sends him to collect the ashes. He is only able to make the trip with Thomas' help, however, and there is a condition which is difficult for him to accept: Victor must swallow his pride and take Thomas with him. The young men are as different as potatoes and strawberries, and through their tension and close proximity they learn from one another - about the world, about Victor's father, and most of all - about themselves. It is an enjoyably paced sentimental and funny film, which gives viewers a look into the Indian culture, and of course - themselves.