The Workplace Law Group of Watson Goepel recently attended a screening of Sugarcane at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver.
This documentary film, which recently won the jury prize for direction at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the personal stories of generations of families affected by attendance at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School near the Sugarcane Reserve in Williams Lake, British Columbia.
To date, Canadians may have largely only been exposed to news reports and press releases about the Canadian residential school systems. However, this film personalizes that information by inviting the audience to unravel the mysteries of individual experiences together with the people who lived them. By the end of the film, there was no shortage of audible intakes of breath along with a sense of frozen anticipation as it is evident this chapter is far from closed. The gift of this director is he doesn’t tell, he evokes. And he does so with the permission and generous vulnerability of the film’s participants, who are equal parts charming, laugh-out-loud funny, inspiring, courageous, and mind-bogglingly dignified.
Interweaving original footage with regular daily activities of the present day, the direction takes the audience on a remarkable journey between the past and present day. In a very natural, human way, the audience is introduced to a number of people from different backgrounds, genders, and ages as they slowly learn of a history that some did not know all the facts about until this film. They will pull you in by welcoming you into their daily lives and history, and you will leave heartbroken and yet somehow hopeful, definitely touched beyond measure but above all with a front-row seat to the lasting impact of the residential school system on our Indigenous Peoples.
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It also coincides with Orange Shirt Day. This day honours the children who never returned home as well as survivors of the residential schools, their families, and their communities. It is a day for all Canadians to commemorate the history and legacy of the residential school system. Change starts with listening respectfully, and Sugarcane is a tribute of the highest order to that cause. Sugarcane will be screened again at the VIFF between October 8 and October 14, 2024.
