It’s been 10 months since “Sugarcane” premiered at Sundance, where it won the US Documentary Directing Award. Since then, directors Emily Casey and Julien Brave Noise Cut have inked a global distribution deal with National Geographic Documentary Films and traveled the world with their film, now making a stop at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival as part of the festival’s best.
“Sugar Cane” follows a long-term reckoning on the titular reserve, sparked by the discovery of unmarked graves on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada in 2021. The documentary explores how Indigenous communities were forced to repress years of secession, assimilation and abuse committed against Their children by a system designed to “solve the Indian problem.”
Speaking about the film’s first outing, Cassie, a journalist with years of experience photographing stories of oppressed people and human rights violations, says she had never before considered turning her gaze to her home country. “When I first heard about the unmarked graves at an abusive assimilation school, I was horrified and knew very clearly that this was a story I wanted to pursue and that I wanted to do it with Julian.”
“sugar-cane”
Courtesy of National Geographic Documentaries
Kassie and NoiseCat worked together as journalists years ago, with Kassie continuing to pursue his work as a writer, storyteller, and journalist focusing on indigenous life in North America. “I was at my sister’s wedding when Julian called me back and it was so important that I spoke to him that I walked out of my sister’s wedding to take his call,” she recalls.
“I had just signed a book deal and had never made a film of any kind, so I didn’t know if I could do both,” NoiseCat says. diverse One of the first people to approach Cassie. “Then, I think more than that, when you watch the film, it kind of becomes clear that my family had a very strong connection to residential schools and I didn’t know what the details of that story were for my parents. I just knew there was a story there.”
NoiseCat and his artist father Ed Archie are featured prominently in the film. Archie was born on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Mission, the school in the center of the “Sugar Cane”, and was found as an infant on top of a rubbish incinerator where newborns were suspected of being burned alive to cover up the systematic clerical rape of students. To this day, Archie is the only known child to have survived the Holocaust at St. Joseph’s.
“sugar-cane”
Courtesy of National Geographic Documentaries
It’s a strange coincidence that the NoiseCat family had strong ties to the school Cassie attended before her co-director officially joined the project. “I thought she might be messing with me,” NoiseCat said when he first learned of the coincidence. “There are 139 boarding schools that Emily could have chosen to focus on, and she just happened to focus on the one school my family was transferred to.”
He adds: “When I initially agreed to collaborate, it was not as a participant, but as a co-director.” “For the first year of filming, there was no understanding that I or my family would be a subject in any way, shape or form. I love how the film was put together as it happened organically and was driven by the circumstances of the people around me.
Also in the film is the story of Rick Gilbert, former chief of the Williams Lake First Nation and a man who clung to his Catholicism even though he not only witnessed the atrocities committed at St. Joseph, but may have been a product of them himself. “People trusted us, especially Rick, with their stories when they had no authorship or editorial control over the work,” highlights NoiseCat.
“As the son of the only known Holocaust survivor and a descendant of a story that was undocumented, unreported, and untold, I had a responsibility to my community about where to go with this story,” he adds. “Ultimately, I feel like we had the right approach editorially and creatively, but also the right approach for my life and my family.”
Commenting on the responsibility of entering a community other than her own, Cassie says: “The history of documentary is a very extractive history when it comes to indigenous people. The first documentary is ‘Nanook of the North’ about the Inuk people in Canada and it is a travesty of a primitive people. Director Robert J. Flaherty had children there and then disappeared for the rest of his life. This is a very problematic history.
“I think there is another way,” she continues. “The camera – if used with care, thought, intention, time and patience – can be used to give people power. This requires approaching all of this from a place of reciprocity and deep listening.
Another major contributor to the “Sugar Cane” journey is Academy Award-nominated actress Lily Gladstone, who is involved in the project as an executive producer. “We are so grateful to have Lily join our team. She has almost single-handedly created opportunities for Indigenous stories and storytellers in a place that has been so hostile to them as Hollywood.
He concludes, “(Gladstone) is a descendant of residential school survivors and I think it’s important that someone whose life and family were also affected by these situations should now be the hero of our film.”
When asked about their 10-month journey with “Sugarcane,” NoiseCat said the reception has been “incredible,” adding that he recently experienced a “full circle moment” when he was invited to attend President Biden’s apology to survivors of Native American boarding schools.
He continues, “Before devoting time to work fully on writing and film, I had the honor of advocating for Deb Haaland’s appointment as the first-ever Secretary of the Native American Cabinet of the United States.” “Secretary Haaland came to the Sundance premiere and our film was part of a conversation that spans the Vatican, Parliament and the White House, which was very special.”
Casey steps in to say that despite the overwhelming reception to their film, “the death toll at schools like St. Joseph’s Mission continues to rise and I don’t know what will be done other than apologies. The Catholic Church and governments (US and Canada) have not yet opened their records so survivors can know “The truth is they need to move forward. There is still work to be done.”
However, the director says she feels “very lucky” to have been in dialogue with other documentaries made this year. “In this chaotic and brutal moment in the world, we hope there is more room for films like ours moving forward. We feel lucky to have a platform and hope our peers — now friends — will have the same opportunity.”