Billy Merasty
Also Known As: not available
Biography: Billy Merasty is an actor, playwright, Cree translator, and language keeper. He was born to Viola and Pierre Merasty in 1960 in Brochet, Manitoba. His grandfather was Joe Highway, a famous caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer. He moved to Toronto at age eighteen in search for his uncle René Highway, who was at the time working for the Toronto Dance Theatre. At age twenty-three Billy launched his acting career after graduating from the Native Theatre School for aspiring Indigenous artists. He then went on to work for the renowned Indigenous performing arts company Native Earth Performing Arts. Billy has worked as a film, television, and stage actor for decades and notably played the first Indigenous gay character on television on the CBC series, Liberty Street, in the role of Nathan. Billy received the Order of Manitoba (Order of the Buffalo Hunt) in recognition for his many years as an Indigenous role model in 2010.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Brochet, Manitoba, Canada
Adult: No
Birthday: January 01, 1960
Age: 65 years old
Gender: Male
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Known For:
Exotica
Overview: In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-09-29
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Northern Lights
Overview: Hoping to leave behind troubled days in the Baltimore city police department, Nate Burns journeys to Alaska, where he takes up a quiet life as a small-town sheriff and begins a romance with spirited bush pilot Meg Galligan). But when Meg's father turns up dead, Burns finds himself thrust into the limelight of a dangerous murder investigation.
Genres: TV Movie Drama Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2009-03-21
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The Big White
Overview: To remedy his financial problems, a travel agent has his eye on a frozen corpse, which just happens to be sought after by two hitmen.
Genres: Comedy Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-10-27
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Overview: Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.
Genres: Western Drama History TV Movie War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-05-27
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Pocahontas: The Legend
Overview: Englishmen come to explore and settle the new world. There they find natives who are curious about their "firesticks" and strange customs.
Genres: Romance Family Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-06-01
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Battle of the Brave
Overview: In the mid-18th Century, as England and France battle over control of Canada, an epic romance between a peasant woman and a trapper unfurls
Genres: Drama History Romance War
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2004-11-19
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Café Daughter
Overview: In a small Saskatchewan town in the 1960s, Yvette Wong, a young girl of Chinese and Cree heritage, struggles with her Indigenous identity amidst family tragedy in this coming-of-age film directed by Mohawk artist and filmmaker Shelley Niro. Yvette’s mother, Katherine, discourages her from embracing her Cree identity, so she explores it in secret. As she learns more about herself and her Indigenous heritage, Yvette finds a friend in Maggie Wolf, who embraces being part Mi’kmaq and encourages Yvette to be proud of being Cree. When her classmates learn about her Cree ancestry, Yvette encounters the realities of being Indigenous, facing prejudice with pride and holding fast to her dream of becoming a doctor. Café Daughter is inspired by true events and based on Kenneth T. Williams’ play of the same name.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: cr
Release Date: 2023-10-19
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Les Légendes du Grand Nord
Overview: A mixed group of adventurers searches for Esperanza, a legendary gold treasure, in the Yukon territory in this Jack London-based tale.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-03-25
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The New World
Overview: A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.
Genres: Drama History Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-12-25
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The Shaman's Source
Overview: Three Ojibway Natives race to find a mystical ancestral spring before a ruthless industrialist claim it.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-01-01
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Stellar
Overview: Set within the fluidity of time, touch, realism and reverie. Some may call this magic realism. Based within Indigenous knowledge and way of life, this story allows two people to heal, through touch, calm, love and patience in a fantastical space that leaves the audience dreamlike and yet it is dangerous and violent, there is love.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-09-11
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Honey Moccasin
Overview: This all-Native production, by director Shelley Niro (Mohawk), is part of the Smoke Signals new wave of films that examine Native identity in the 1990’s. Set on the Grand Pine Indian Reservation, aka “Reservation X”, HONEY MOCCASIN combines elements of melodrama, performance art, cable access, and ‘whodunit’ to question conventions of ethnic and sexual identity as well as film narrative. A comedy/thriller complete with a fashion show and torchy musical numbers, this witty film employs a surreal pastiche of styles to depict the rivalry between bars The Smokin’ Moccasin and The Inukshuk Cafe, the saga of closeted drag queen/powwow clothing thief Zachary John, and the travails of crusading investigator Honey Moccasin. This irreverent reappropriation of familiar narrative strategies serves as a provocative spring-board for an investigation of authenticity, cultural identity, and the articulation of modern Native American experience in cinematic language and pop culture.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
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The Broken Cord
Overview: Fact-based story of an idealistic single dad who discovers that his beloved Native American adopted son is afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and complicates his life with the woman who becomes his wife.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-02-03
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Snake Treaty
Overview: Guy Pehrsson is summoned by his grandfather to return to the farming community of his childhood. He arrives from the City to find that his mother has finally left his alcoholic and abusive father and now lives among the Indians, Guy's childhood friends and neighbours. He also discovers friction between the white farmers and the local Indians, now faced with the choice of selling or retaining their land. A choice made harder by poverty. Guy's boyhood friend, Tom Redfox, leads those Indians who wish to keep their land. Against the background of ensuing confrontation, Guy becomes reacquainted with his estranged parents, his childhood friends and old values, leading to a tragedy that affect the whole community.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-01-24
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Elijah
Overview: The story of Elijah Harper.....
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2008-05-28
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Aberdeen
Overview: An idyllic childhood with her mooshum and kookum, or grandparents, in her community of Peguis First Nation dissipates as Aberdeen’s hard-partying and absentee parents distances her from that haven. Now an adult, sleeping on public benches, Winnipeg-based Aberdeen is in survival mode. The last remaining stable parts of her life begin slipping away — her reliable brother Boyd is ill and gives up Aberdeen’s grandkids to the foster care system. Then she loses her ID.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2024-09-06
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It Chapter Two
Overview: 27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.
Genres: Horror Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-09-04
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The Confessional
Overview: Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Quebec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrigue where the answer to the mystery lies.
Genres: Thriller Drama Mystery
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1995-09-29
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Heritage Minutes: Queenston Heights
Overview: Mohawk Chief John Norton and 80 Grand River warriors hold off American soldiers until reinforcements arrive and the Battle of Queenston Heights is won (1812).
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-01-01
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The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw
Overview: As MITZI BEARCLAW turns 25 years-old, she is faced with a tragic decision – stay in the big city to pursue her dream of designing hats or leave her boyfriend and return home to her isolated reserve to help care for her sick mother. Loyal to her family, Mitzi reluctantly returns to Owl Island to find that not much has changed. Her confidence and modern style clash with the sleepy, slow-paced island; the bullies are the same; the handsome HONEYBOY is still running the water taxi; and ANNABELLE, Mitzi’s mother is still as bitter and unloving as ever. She’s also reunited with her spiritual friends, FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY who guide her as she navigates a year of anger, loss and love. Mitzi is soon surprised to find comfort in being home and starts to question her destiny.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-10-17
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X-Rated
Overview: A man is asked by his parents to run an apartment complex they own and becomes acquainted with an intriguing hippie girl and various other people from all walks of life who live there. This film is the pilot for Liberty Street (1994).
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-02-27
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Stardom
Overview: A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-10-13
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