Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat's documentary about an investigation into the Canadian Indian residential school system that uncovered the abuse and murder of dozens of Indigenous children at a Catholic missionary school is a personal exploration of generational trauma stemming from colonialism and systemic racism. With his co-director, Emily Kassie, who is also the co-producer and one of the cinematographers, NoiseCat makes himself part of a group of characters the film follows who are descendants of captive young mothers impregnated by abusive priests and teachers. While the film's combination of cinéma vérité and first-person perspective can occasionally feel a bit intrusive, there's no doubt that the uncomfortable interpersonal conversations captured are powerful and often harrowing.

This is a case where the in-vogue personal approach to documentary serves its subject well. And this focus on individual stories doesn't prevent NoiseCat and Kassie from including figures like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who visits the soon-to-be-excavated burial grounds outside the former school, and Pope Francis, who addresses a delegation of survivors and descendants that travels to the Vatican for truth and reconciliation. It's heartbreaking and telling that both of these powerful figures seem helpless when it comes to offering any substantive reparations to the characters in this movie. The silent scenes at the Vatican, with its culture, traditions, art, and artifacts that have been meticulously preserved for centuries, speak just as loudly as the stories of the few remaining witnesses to the cultural destruction and atrocities committed in the name of "caretaking."