By Erin Free
Worth: $19.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Ed Archie NoiseCat, Chief Rick Gilbert, Chief Willie Sellars, Charlene Belleau, Whitney Spearing
Intro:
Sugarcane succeeds on every level...
There is an ongoing argument that in order to get the best results, a documentarian must remain objective and stand outside their subject in order to treat it with a clear, unjaundiced eye and a complete lack of bias. That argument has frequently been exploded as complete and utter bullshit (in everything from Stories We Tell to Super Size Me), and is well and truly torched once again in the deeply personal and profoundly distressing doco Sugarcane. In this artfully tailored work, co-director Julian Brave NoiseCat (who co-helms with Emily Kassie) deals with subject matter that strikes not just at the heart of his own family, but at his very soul. His journey is a sad, brave and profoundly meaningful one that screams with authenticity, rage, hurt and lasting trauma. His documentary Sugarcane brims and bristles with such quiet power that it ultimately becomes something more than just a film; it is a literal plea for justice, like a slice of light cutting through impenetrable darkness.
Though America’s mistreatment of its indigenous peoples has been well documented, the history of its apparent nice-guy neighbours in Canada has been less so, at least publicly. That has changed over the years, with Prime Minister Trudeau apologising for the awful trespasses committed by Canada’s arm of The Catholic Church, who have a long and sordid history of removing Native Canadian children from their communities and then systematically abusing them while they were in their care at a variety of church-run boarding schools. As the horrors committed against Native Canadians are made public, Julian Brave NoiseCat not only tracks the public progress of the revelations, but also wades into the generational trauma of his own family and unearths a raft of pain and anguish that almost deny words.
Poetically shot by Emily Kassie and Christopher LaMarca, plaintively but beautifully scored by Mali Obomsawin, and executive produced by Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers Of The Flower Moon), Sugarcane effectively traces the various branches that grow outward from the central crimes committed by The Catholic Church committed against Canada’s native peoples. Along with the fractures in his own immediate family and his relationship with his father, Julian Brave NoiseCat also follows the journey of Chief Rick Gilbert, a sweet, unassuming man who travels to The Vatican with other Native Canadians to accept an apology from The Pope (this also provides some moments of gentle humour). The more institutional approach to the revelations of the evils of The Catholic Church committed against Native Canadians (which extend from physical, emotional, cultural, spiritual, and sexual abuse right through to murder) is seen through the strong, sensitive eyes of Chief Willie Sellars and investigators and survivors like Charlene Belleau and Whitney Spearing. Featuring scenes that resound and reverberate with extraordinary sadness and injustice, Sugarcane succeeds on every level: as a vital piece of activism, as a personal story, as a witness-bearer, as a slice of history, and as an emotionally rending film of the first order.
Sugarcane is streaming now on Disney+
