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- By Kaili Berg
With the 2025 Oscar nomination of Sugarcane in the documentary film category, the horrific history of Indian residential schools continues to garner more attention.
Directed by thirty-one-year-old Julian Brave NoiseCat (Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen) and Emily Kassie, Sugarcane sheds light on the missing children who never returned home, the survivors who carry the scars of the past, and the ongoing fight for truth and reconciliation.
NoiseCat is a Native writer, journalist, policy analyst, and activist focuses on Indigenous rights, climate policy, and social justice. He has written for major publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, covering issues related to Indigenous communities, environmental justice, and progressive policies.
Last year’s Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet and Nez Perce) is an executive producer of Sugarcane.
Sugarcane focuses on St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in British Columbia, located near the Sugarcane Indian Reserve. The film follows the story of 12-year-old Mason, a former student, while also exploring the broader history of residential schools, institutions designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children through abusive and dehumanizing conditions.
The film also explores NoiseCat’s personal connection to St. Joseph’s Mission, where his father was both born and attended as a child. Through this deeply personal lens, the documentary captures the intergenerational trauma experienced by Indigenous families, while also chronicling the community-led movement toward reckoning and healing.
Additionally, it documents the self-reflection of Ricket Gilbert, the former chief of the Williams Lake First Nation, who was part of a delegation of Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors who traveled to the Vatican in 2022 to meet with Pope Francis.
That visit culminated in Pope Francis’ public apology for the atrocities committed by Christian institutions against Indigenous peoples in Canada.
The origins of Sugarcane trace back to 2021, when the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia ignited a global conversation about Canada’s residential school legacy.
In late 2021, Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) launched a nine-month investigation into potential unmarked graves at St. Joseph’s Mission. The findings, announced by Chief Willie Sellars in January 2022, revealed the possible burial sites of at least 50 Indigenous children.
St. Joseph’s Mission operated from 1891 to 1981 and was run by various religious sects under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite longstanding reports of neglect and abuse at the institution, many accounts were ignored or deliberately destroyed.
One of the most harrowing stories revealed that nine students attempted mass suicide by ingesting poison hemlock to escape the school, one did not survive. Additionally, several clergy members from St. Joseph’s Mission were later convicted of sexual crimes against children in the 1990s.
Before earning its Oscar nomination, Sugarcane garnered significant acclaim at major film festivals. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2024, where it received widespread praise for its compelling storytelling and meticulous research.
The documentary was also featured at Sundance, where it won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary.
Beyond its artistic and cinematic achievements, the documentary has sparked important conversations about government and church accountability, pushing for justice and reparations for survivors and their families.
Sugarcane is now available for streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
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