SUGARCANE is the first feature-length documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie. Part of a groundbreaking investigation, the film highlights the heartbreak and beauty of a community that has worked to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma and find the strength to survive.

The film unfolds in Williams Lake First Nation, British Columbia, also known as the Sugarcane Reserve, or simply “Sugarcane.” In 2021, unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a residential school run by the Catholic Church in the city of Kamloops — nearly 300 kilometres to the south — where many Williams Lake children had been sent to school. SUGARCANE examines the years of silence, forced separation, assimilation, and abuse suffered by many Indigenous children in residential schools, as well as the national and international outcry against the schools’ impact on Indigenous communities.

Presented in English with French subtitles
1 hour 47 minutes