Clearcut is a 1991 Canadian horror-thriller film[2][3] directed by Ryszard Bugajski and starring Graham Greene, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Ron Lea, and Michael Hogan.

It follows a white lawyer in an unnamed Canadian province who finds his values shaken when he meets an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company clearcutting on native land.

Filmed in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and based on the novel A Dream Like Mine (1987) written by M. T. Kelly, it covers complex subject matter such as the land rights of indigenous peoples in Canada, pacifism, colonialism, and environmentalism.

[5] A seaplane carries white lawyer, Peter Maguire (Lea), to a First Nations reserve in the forests of rural Canada, where activists are engaged in a long, chaotic protest to block a road that would lead to clearcutting on Indian land.

Maguire is representing the native band whose land is designated for deforestation and has come to tell them that they have lost the court case and that the logging company will begin building their road.

An elder member of the Nation and Maguire's personal contact, Wilf Redwing (Westerman), stoically refuses the loss and states that it is a long battle.

Both Bud and Arthur chastise Maguire for not picking a side as he wavers between loyalty to the natives and faith in white colonialist systems.

"[11] The Calgary Herald's Fred Haeseker commented on the film's dark and violent content, summarizing: "Clearcut shares a rare, impressive intensity.

Clearcut's somewhat ambiguous and brutal portrayal of land claim disputes, along with its extreme violence targeted towards police and business owners could have contributed to its lack of success.

[15] The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (2015) comments on the character of Arthur being portrayed as a spiritual being, and how he is a symbolic representation of the response to colonial attitudes of racism and inequity.