Sugarcane
Documentary English
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in Canada ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
| Cast: | Julian Brave NoiseCat, Willie Sellars, Charlene Belleau, Ed Archie Noisecat, Chief Willie Sellars, |
|---|---|
| Director: | Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat |
| Writer: | Emily Kassie |
| Editor: | Nathan Punwar, Maya Daisy Hawke |
| Camera: | Christopher LaMarca, Emily Kassie |
All Guild Reviews of "Sugarcane"
An Oscar Wouldn’t Be Enough for This Searing Documentary About a Grave Social Injustice
Stunning in every sense of the word, the new documentary film explores the lasting pain caused by a culture of silence in the Catholic church.
Perhaps the year’s most striking documentary, Sugarcane is billed as an ‘investigation’ into the crimes that were committed by Catholic missionaries against Indigenous peoples of Canada across a century, but it is equally successful as an examination of inherited trauma, and as a study of a community in crisis. At the beginning of the 20th Century, schools were set up specifically for Indigenous children across North America, ostensibly to help them assimilate into Western culture. The children were subjected to unspeakable crimes at these ‘residential’ institutions, operated exclusively by the Catholic church, causing many of them to take their lives as they grew older. The magnitude of the tragedy, which is revealed gradually throughout the film, is immeasurable.
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