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 a co-producer and one of the cinematographers, NoiseCat makes himself one of a group of characters the film follows who are descendants of helpless 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 the uncomfortable interpersonal conversations captured are powerful and often harrowing. Even more enraging is the way 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, seem helpless when it comes to offering any substantive reparations. The silent scenes at the Vatican, with its culture, traditions, art, and artifacts that have been meticulously preserved for centuries, speak just as loud as the stories of the few remaining witnesses to the cultural destruction and atrocities committed in the name of "caretaking."