{"id":14100,"date":"2025-01-24T23:29:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T23:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/24\/b-c-documentary-about-residential-school-atrocities-nominated-for-an-oscar\/"},"modified":"2025-01-24T23:29:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T23:29:27","slug":"b-c-documentary-about-residential-school-atrocities-nominated-for-an-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/24\/b-c-documentary-about-residential-school-atrocities-nominated-for-an-oscar\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. documentary about residential school atrocities nominated for an Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"


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WARNING: This story contains details that may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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A documentary<\/a> following an investigation into allegations of abuse and missing kids at the former St. Joseph\u2019s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake has been nominated for an Oscar.<\/p>\n

Sugarcane<\/em> <\/a>is up for the Best Documentary Feature award at the Academy Awards<\/a> later this winter.<\/p>\n

Secwepemc filmmaker, Julian Brave NoiseCat, and Toronto journalist, director, producer and cinematographer, Emily Kassie, explore allegations that the priests who fathered children with students at the school sent the infants to be killed in the incinerator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film has meant the world to me,\u201d NoiseCat told Global News, explaining his father was born at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really would hang over me about that, the moment of the nomination, was whether or not, whether our work would be recognized, really, but whether this story and its significance and the feeling at the core of it would be seen and recognized in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kassie said when she heard the film was nominated, a wave of emotion hit her.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur whole team has just given everything that they\u2019ve had to serve something that was bigger than us all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur participants were incredibly vulnerable and brave.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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On May 27, 2021, the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secwepemc announced the finding<\/a> of more than 200 potential unmarked graves<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Indigenous children<\/a>\u00a0at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.<\/p>\n

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NoiseCat said that was the impetus for Sugarcane<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It also coincided with the start of an investigation to take place at the site of the former\u00a0St. Joseph\u2019s Mission Residential School.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019d be most accurate to say that there were agencies beyond yourself, you know, that are intergenerational, that involved many different people, some of them who are no longer with us, that brought us together to tell this story,\u201d NoiseCat said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn that way, it feels like an incredibly special story, and one that was an incredibly important part of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations, Terry Teegee, said seeing the film being nominated for an Oscar only further validates the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to understand, you know, these colonial \u2014 I would say genocidal \u2014 policies that were imposed on First Nations and Indigenous Peoples in North America had profound implications on Indigenous Peoples, and certainly it will take generations to recover from these genocidal policies that were imposed on First Nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s how come it is so good that this was nominated for Best Documentary Film and that\u2019s why it is so important to watch the film. And certainly, being nominated for an Oscar is going to spread the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NoiseCat\u2019s father, Ed Archie NoiseCat, who was born at the Williams Lake residential school, appears in the film alongside his son.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tEd Archie NoiseCat grapples with the shocking truth of his secretive birth at St. Joseph\u2019s Mission Indian residential school.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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\n\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Emily Kassie\/Sugarcane Film LLC)\t\t\t\t<\/cite>
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