Sugarcane

A riveting chronicle of an investigation into unreported deaths at a boarding school for indigenous children in Canada that led to an inter-generational reckoning with abuse, faith and power.

Across North America, hundreds of thousands of indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced to live in state-funded residential schools run by the Catholic church. For decades, reports of missing children, suicide, sexual assault and rape went unreported and unrecognised by both governmental bodies and the church. Now, a group of survivors and their families are demanding answers and reconciliation. Co-director Julian Brave Noisecat’s father was born in one of the schools and is now attempting to unearth his family’s trauma and confront the endemic abuse that took place. A tribute to the lives, land and culture of a people, Sugarcane is a devastating yet lyrical study of generational trauma and the rippling effects of abuse.

Content Guidance: Film contains discussions about sexual and child abuse.