High Steel

Jan 1, 1965

0h 14m

★ 6.8

Overview

A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

ONF | NFB

High Steel Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Don Francks

The title of this video, taken from the texts of the architect Kengo Kuma, suggests a way of looking at everything as “interconnected and intertwined” - such as the historical and the present and the tool and the artifact. Images and representations of two structures in the Portland Metropolitan Area that have direct and complicated connections to the Chinookan people who inhabit(ed) the land are woven with audio tapes of one of the last speakers of chinuk wawa, the Chinookan creole. These localities of matter resist their reduction into objects, and call anew for space and time given to wandering as a deliberate act, and the empowerment of shared utility.

No Image Available

0.0

The Gambler

Jul 1, 1950

This late 1940s/early 1950s rather graphic color film about carelessness and safety operating heavy machinery is presented by Caterpillar.

0.0

Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe

Nov 1, 1985

Examines the impact a century of struggling for survival has on a native people. It weaves the Crow tribe's turbulent past with modern-day accounts from Robert Yellow-tail, a 97-year-old Crow leader and a major reason for the tribe's survival. Poverty and isolation combine with outside pressures to undermine the tribe, but they resist defeat as "Contrary Warriors," defying the odds.

No Image Available

0.0

Indian Rights for Indian Women

Sep 25, 2018

Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.

0.0

Skydancer

Nov 13, 2011

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

9.0

Sweetheart Dancers

Feb 23, 2019

Sean and Adrian, a Two-Spirit couple, are determined to rewrite the rules of Native American culture through their participation in the “Sweetheart Dance.” This celebratory contest is held at powwows across the country, primarily for heterosexual couples … until now.

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1.0

LaDonna Harris: Indian 101

Mar 29, 2014

A documentary film about Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who led an extensive life of Native political and social activism, and is now passing on her traditional cultural and leadership values to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders.

0.0

The Lost Spirits

Jan 1, 2009

The last surviving Native Americans on Long Island are the focus of The Lost Spirits. The film chronicles their struggles as an indigenous people to maintain their identity amidst relentless modernization and a heartless bureaucracy.

6.0

Mankiller

Jun 19, 2017

The story of an American hero and the Cherokee Nation's first woman Principal Chief who humbly defied all odds to give a voice to the voiceless.

0.0

As Long as the Rivers Run

Jan 1, 1971

Examines the violence and civil disobedience leading up to the hallmark decision in U.S. v. Washington, with particular reference to the Nisqually Indians of Frank's Landing in Washington.

0.0

Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History

Mar 8, 2025

The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.

No Image Available

0.0

Mitakuye Oyasin

Jan 22, 2015

Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota describe the ongoing struggle of their people.

0.0

Dolores

Jan 1, 1984

No overview available.

0.0

The Warrior Tradition

Nov 11, 2019

The astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why do they do it? Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands?

0.0

Chasing Voices: The Story of John Peabody Harrington

Apr 30, 2021

For 50 years, controversial ethnographer John Peabody Harrington crisscrossed the United States, frantically searching and documenting dying Native American languages. Harrington amassed over a million pages of notes on over 150 different tribal languages. Some of these languages were considered dead until his notes were discovered. Today tribes are accessing the notes, reviving their once dormant languages, and bringing together a new generation of language learners in the hope of saving Native languages.

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0.0

Safety on the Move: Track Haulage Safety

Jul 1, 1982

Focuses on an open-pit mining operation. Shows huge haulage trucks, pointing out existing and potential hazards involved in their operation. Re-enacts common accidents, explains their causes and outlines the steps necessary to prevent their re-occurrence.

5.8

Dislocation Blues

Sep 8, 2017

Filmed during the 2016 Standing Rock protests in South Dakota, Sky Hopinka's Dislocation Blues offers a portrait of the movement and its water protectors, refuting grand narratives and myth-making in favour of individual testimonials.

0.0

Taking Alcatraz

Nov 1, 2015

A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembrances, archival newsreel footage and photographs.

5.0

maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore

Jan 26, 2020

An experimental look at the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, following two people as they navigate their own relationships to the spirit world and a place in between life and death.

0.0

The Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area?

Nov 15, 1983

Documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining, and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.

High Steel

Overview

Genres

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High Steel Trailers