Documentary on the legacy of residential schools in B.C. wins at Sundance Film Festival
CBC
A documentary chronicling the devastating legacy of residential schools in B.C. is among breakout films at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie received the jury prize for directing in the U.S. documentary category for Sugarcane about the investigation into the abuse and missing children of a residential school, and its impacts on the nearby Sugarcane reserve.
Awards for the festival's 40th edition — which runs Jan. 18-28 — were announced Friday at the Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.
"The reception here has just been incredibly positive," NoiseCat told CBC News from Park City, over Zoom.
NoiseCat, a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq̓éscen̓, appears in the film alongside his father.
Ed Archie NoiseCat was forced to attend St. Joseph's Mission Residential School near the Sugarcane reserve in Williams Lake, located in B.C.'s central Interior roughly 326 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. He attended Sugarcane's screening along with other members of the Canim Lake Band Tsq̓éscen.
"I did not think I would be there in the documentary. I was initially only supposed to be behind the camera," said the younger NoiseCat.
"But as I continued to learn of my father's origin, I felt I wouldn't be giving my all if I did not appear."
The residential school near the Sugarcane reserve operated from 1886 to 1981 and was run by Roman Catholic missionaries.
The structure has since been torn down, but the painful memories for survivors and their families remain, says NoiseCat.
"Since my family had a very deep and painful connection to the residential schools, I was hesitant to work on the subject matter," he said.
The involvement of fellow director Emily Kassie, however, helped move the needle on bringing the documentary to life.
"I was shocked and felt gut-pulled when I first heard about unmarked graves at the residential schools," said Kassie.
More than 150,000 children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada from the 1830s until 1997. The institutions were created by the Canadian federal government to assimilate Indigenous people, in part by forcibly separating children from their parents.
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