Julian Brave NoiseCat, Ed Archie NoiseCat and Emily Kassie attending Doc Filmmaker Welcome Reception on day two of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Image Credit: Photo by Haley Nord/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival

CONTENT ADVISORY

This story contains graphic details about residential “schools” that many will find distressing or triggering. Please look after your spirit and read with care.

A Secwépemc-led documentary examining the former St. Joseph’s Mission and its ongoing impact has been recognized with an award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Sugarcane had its world premiere on Jan. 20 at Sundance, where co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie also won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary.

The directors were joined on stage at the premiere by Julian’s father Ed Archie NoiseCat, Williams Lake First Nation Kúkwpi7 Willie Sellars and St. Joseph’s Mission investigators Charlene Belleau and Whitney Spearing, who are all featured in the documentary. 

Sugarcane is rooted at the Sugarcane Reserve near Williams Lake, focusing on the stories of people who are affected by the notorious residential “school” that operated between 1891 to 1981. 

Notably, the documentary reveals truths about infanticides that took place at the institution — something that’s long been discussed by survivors who have spoken of an incinerator at the “school.”

The Sundance award jury called Sugarcane “an important voice for truth and healing.

“Benefiting from sensitive cinematography, careful producing, and editing that interweaves multiple narratives, these directors helped illuminate the urgency of history and the interconnected, multi-generational crimes experienced by a community,” the jury’s citation said.

‘The decision to participate felt completely straightforward’

Co-director Kassie said she started work on the film after evidence of 215 unmarked graves was found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) in 2021.

“I just felt gut-pulled, I felt an urgency to help platform this story and make sure that people’s voices were heard,” she said in an interview with IndigiNews.

With a background in investigative journalism and filmmaking, Kassie has covered atrocities in areas such as Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Turkey.

“I had never turned my lens on my own country’s horrors to its first peoples,” she said.

While she was researching, Kassie found an article discussing an upcoming investigation at the St. Joseph’s Mission (SJM) on the Sugarcane reserve. The SJM was run by the Catholic order the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Along with all the “schools” in “Canada” and the “United States,” it was designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into colonial society.

In her first talk with WLFN Chief Sellars, Kassie recalled, he commended the Creator’s timing and said the council recently discussed having their investigation documented. From that point, Kassie was invited into the community.

Kassie began collaborating with NoiseCat after that talk — the two were already friends, and she knew him as an incredible storyteller, leader and historian of the Secwépemc region. NoiseCat is a member of the Tsq?éscen? First Nation (Canim Lake Band).

“So for nearly three years, we lived alongside our participants, feeling the rawness of their pain and bearing witness to the bravery in their resilience, while documenting a vibrant world in a moment of historic reckoning,” the directors said in a joint statement.

With personal stories at its core, Sugarcane is groundbreaking in how it unveils a deeper layer of history within the “schools” — as the first work to document “a system of infanticide,” according to Kassie.

Eyewitness testimonies, police records, and articles from the Williams Lake Tribune all serve as evidence for this horrifying practice at SJM. 

The documentary and this focus unexpectedly hit very close to home for NoiseCat, whose father had been rescued from the “school’s” incinerator soon after he was born. Throughout the film, NoiseCat gains insight on this incident while he and his father find themselves trying to heal throughout the process. 

While NoiseCat’s story was never intended to be featured in the documentary, he explains the grace given by everyone involved and a spiritual moment with SJM investigator Belleau while in the SJM barn that led to his inclusion.

“Once we had gathered, she invoked the ancestors and the spirits of the children. She called on us, and on me specifically, to help tell this story and bring those spirits, those children, home,” he said in a statement. 

“From that moment, the decision to participate felt completely straightforward.”

The documentary is filmed with stunning shots of the landscape within Sugarcane and beyond, utilizing shadows and lighting to emphasize the stories.

In one scene, the sun peeks through the SJM barn walls, dimly illuminating NoiseCat and Belleau as they examine writing and carvings on the walls of the children’s names, numbers that identify them at the “school,” and countdowns until they could return home.

Through the documentary, survivors recount their first-hand experiences of a cultural genocide and of their enduring culture that they continue to pass on to their families.

Belleau, a featured member of the documentary as an Elder and investigator, experienced the St. Joseph’s Mission firsthand, as she attended for four years. 

In a meeting with other survivors where they are discussing the staff that they remember at the “school,” Belleau is a comforting presence when emotional stories are told.

“It’s okay to cry,” she says to the group. These words served as more than a reminder to the group but to the viewers as well.

As a leader in the community and survivor of the residential “school,” the late Chief Rick Gilbert also has a constant presence throughout the documentary. In 2022, Gilbert attended the Pope’s first apology at the Vatican in Italy. 

During this visit he met with Louis Lougen, the superior general with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the same group who ran the St. Joseph’s Mission. The emotional encounter is met with prolonged silence from Lougen as Gilbert recounts the abuse endured at the “school.”

Along with these survivor interviews, the investigation team conducted a geophysical investigation around SJM which uses methods such as ground-penetrating radar to survey the land. Working closely with contractors and WLFN’s own archaeology company ensured cultural practices were followed throughout the investigation.

During phase one of the investigation, which was focused on the areas immediately around the “school,” 93 reflections were discovered. SJM investigator Spearing spoke on the findings from phase two which broadened the search and displayed 66 more reflections.

These reflections, “display characteristics indicative of potential human burials,” she said.

Since completing phase two, WLFN has purchased the land where SJM sits and will eventually look into possible excavation after ensuring it is safe for ceremony.

Showcasing the truth behind archival footage

The 1962 CBC documentary Eyes of the Children, which was filmed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, portrays the children as happy students who are learning from the “school” staff — this archival footage is used in the film as contrast with the real stories told by the SJM survivors. 

Kassie said the CBC documentary shows the audience how these “schools” were portrayed to society at the time, in a way that was vastly different to the actual cruelty that the children were experiencing.

“We just were floored by it and knew that if we could find a way to use it … in juxtaposition with the lived experiences of our protagonist that it could be extremely powerful,” she said.

The filming and editing grew with the stories, with NoiseCat saying the discovery of more archival footage which advertises Indigenous children to adopt showed the deeper layer of cultural genocide. 

“[The commercial] helps put a point on the fact that there really was almost like a market for, you know, adopting Indigenous children who were themselves a product of this cultural genocide and, at least at St. Joseph’s Mission, a system of infanticide,” he said.

NoiseCat explained that the documentary also included scenes from the Kamloopa powwow, which show his Kyé7e supporting his dancing, and an Elders’ dance where everyone is smiling and socializing. He said he wanted to showcase breaking the cycles of pain and intergenerational trauma that originated due to the residential “schools.”  

“We really wanted to capture that enduring spirit that exists in our Secwépemc communities and all indigenous communities, because that is ultimately bigger and greater than the harm and the evil inflicted by the residential schools,” he said.

“It’s a story about the love that persists in our families and in our community.”

NoiseCat added that Indigenous people live a family oriented lifestyle, which is “core to who we’ve always been since time immemorial.”

“And I think that it’s a really beautiful, wonderful thing,” he said.

Kassie explains how the film, shot over 150 days, created endless extra footage from their time with the community.

“We had so many incredible narratives and stories and there wasn’t room for all of them,” she said.

“So letting go of incredible material was really difficult.”

Kassie explained how the final documentary was the product of many tried iterations to immerse the audience into the community and throughout constant work with their team, they successfully brought the narratives together.

NoiseCat agreed, noting that with this being his first film, the collaboration in all aspects was a fulfilling personal and creative experience. 

“It’s just been an incredible journey with the community and our team to create something that everyone felt really spoke truth and was a rewrite of history,” Kassie said.

— This story was originally published by IndigiNews.

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