Sugarcane / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie

KUCI: Film School

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere. Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie join us for a conversation on how their focus on the subject changed during the filming of SUGARCANE, getting know the dedicated people like Whitney Spearing and Charlene Belleau who devoted themselves to uncovering the repugnant history of St. Joseph’s Residential School, capturing the relationship between Julian and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat and filming the disturbing meeting between the Rick Gilbert, Former First Nation Chief, and the Vatican’s Superior General Louis Lougen. For more go to: nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane