A Must-See Film About a Terribly Difficult Subject
“Sugarcane” follows survivors and investigators after the horrifying treatment of Indigenous Canadians was discovered at residential schools.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When it comes to stories that hold the potential to slide from sensitive to sensational, documentarians can take several approaches. There’s the talking-head driven journalistic approach, in which the story and its analysis are laid out, beat by beat. There’s also the more lurid approach that films about cults and crime can employ, with re-enactments and ominous musical cues.
But a third way — and the one thatEmily KassieandJulian Brave NoiseCattake in“Sugarcane”(in theaters), to their great credit — is to invite the audience to dwell alongside those affected by the story, letting their experiences and emotions guide the film. This one tells a horrifying story: In 2021 and 2022 in a series of cascading discoveries,unmarked graveswere found on thegroundsof anumberof Indigenous Canadian residential schools. On investigation, they revealed horrifying mistreatment of Indigenous communities, where parents were virtually forced to send their children to the schools as part of the government’s quest to “solve the Indian problem.”
The film’s jumping-off point is the graves discovered at St. Joseph’s Mission, a residential school in British Columbia, near the Sugarcane Reserve of Williams Lake. NoiseCat’s father and grandmother were survivors of St. Joseph’s, and his journey to learn their immensely painful stories is one strand of the documentary.
There are others, too. Charlene Belleau and Whitney Spearing are two investigators working with the Williams Lake First Nation to uncover the truth about what happened at St. Joseph’s, and their determination helps fill in many of the disturbing details that were covered up at the time of the abuse. Rick Gilbert, a former chief of Williams Lake First Nation, was also educated at St. Joseph’s but is a faithful Catholic and reluctant to acknowledge the full extent of the atrocity — even when DNA tests appear to confirm that his father was one of the priests. He is summoned to the Vatican as part of an audience with Pope Francis regarding the discoveries. But his own story takes a long time to come out
Kassie and NoiseCat braid these strands together, weaving in archival footage that shows how Indigenous people were stereotyped as lazy and subhuman. Furthermore, the film establishes, with very little room for argument, that the people operating the schools were aware that children were being molested and even raped by priests, but the victim’s stories were ignored. On the St. Joseph’s grounds, it becomes clear, infants born to girls were thrown into incinerators.
These are extremely difficult details to write about, let alone to watch. But “Sugarcane” is a must-see film, and not just because St. Joseph’s is one of hundreds of such schools — well over 500 in Canada and the United States — that were supported by the government and run by the Roman Catholic Church.
For one, it’s immersive and incredibly beautiful, shot like poetry and scored byMali Obomsawin. The result is both stunning and sobering. And because Kassie and NoiseCat narrow their focus to the stories of St. Joseph’s survivors and their descendants, it’s breathtaking when they widen out to remind us that these stories are not isolated — that people all over North America are living with the repercussions of truth suppressed and violence enacted in the name of love and faith.
Alissa Wilkinsonis a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005.More about Alissa Wilkinson
A version of this article appears in print onAug. 16, 2024, SectionC, Page4of the New York editionwith the headline:Horrifying Mistreatment And a Community in Pain. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe See more on:Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases
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The Truth and Reconciliation investigation counted 4,100 First Nations children that died in Canada's Residential schools the true number is believed to be around 6,000. Many records were destroyed or hidden by both the gov't and RCC.
The Canadian Medical Association just issued an apology for their treatment of Nativ including children. Some of the crimes wr medical experiments and forced sterilization..
Do not think that the US was not involved, Canada took our Indian Boarding Schools as the template for their Residential schools. While Canada has been much more forthright in admitting the horrendous crimes including murder, sodomy, rap, forced labor, and slavery the US is just starting its investigations and thus far around 1,000 Indian children did at US schools many more investigations to go. The same problem exists as Canada lost or destroyed records or refusal by the RCC and gov't to produce the records.
reading about or watching this stuff makes me want to have more than an unfriendly chat with those that defend it.
Exactly,
See comment 3
Hopefully more and more people will see this. (i will post a link on some other social media sites).
Thanks, Krish.
Is this a story about the alleged graves or is it about what has been discovered about the schools themselves while investigating the alleged graves?
Why are you so hateful?
What is hateful about asking what the film is about?
it's part of a sequel. the final episode is about the forensic identification of burned hypocrite remains found in thumper church rubble. /s
What does it matter the story is about the horrors inflicted on Indian children by the Canadian gov't and the RCC so-called Christians, experts in murder, physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, sodomy, slavery, medical experiments, forced sterilization, forced labor, beatings, and lack of medical care to name a few.
Hey, look on the blighted side: we forced you to convert and now you don't have pay attention to the Spirits. Now you can pray them away.
So, from what I gather from you, it is about the operations of the schools. Thank you. I will keep an eye out for it.
... a lesson in what happens when a gov't funds the combination of religion and education.
In this case, an evil cabal was the result.
it's a story about how the self righteous end up in hell ...
In this case, that is, the government trying to force cultural assimilation through forced conversion, I totally agree.
And the RCC and many other Christian religions did this bidding for the gov't in the most brutal ways. As the messengers of God, the priests, and nuns took on the role of Satan's disciples and were very good at it.
If the phrasing is intended to provoke, you're wasting your time. I have no problem with admitting to what was done in God's name, historically, good or bad. Denying history is the province of fools.
Not at all. I am simply stating facts for the majority of people who have no idea what went on in these schools—a history lesson, so to speak.
A good point. I'm sure you know that the NA situation wasn't unique. The same old same old that happened throughout history to various cultures and people. History repeating itself. Not that it repeats excuses any of it. It's just one more example though, that humanity never changes. The Uighurs are experiencing it in China right now, for instance and, my guess, it is as least as bad. And that's far from being the only recent example that can be named. Sucks, but that's humanity for you.
And, lest you think I'm making little of what happened to your people, I don't intend that. In fact, for the survivors of schools that actually abused your people who still live I am in favor of actual reparations, and not some mere token. The government and church organizations owe them that much. But I don't see this as simply an NA problem. I see this as a problem of people not seeing what we are all really like, which is why I speak the way I do.
This is a must-see documentary for those who do not understand what my people went through. Those who want to push it under the rug will just ignore the facts.
Agreed, and now the investigations have started in the US with both the church and the gov't stalling with documents. To date, around 1,000 Indian kids died in UD Indian boarding schools with a lot of investigation to go.
I have added this to my watchlist.
Good, but be prepared for things you did not think would be done to humans much less children.
hard to believe the catholic church has a clergy shortage with those job perks ... /s