Sugarcane (2024)
Directed by: Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat
Premise: A documentary about the history of abuse wrought by the Canadian Indian residential school system, focusing on a school that operated near the Sugarcane Reserve in British Columbia.
What Works: From the mid-nineteenth century to the 1990s the Canadian government funded a system of Indian residential schools that were operated by the Catholic Church. These schools were intended to separate young native people from their culture and assimilate them into European traditions. The schools were notorious for overcrowding, poor sanitation, and abuse. Sugarcane documents the legacy of one of these institutions, kicked off by the discovery of unmarked graves of children who died while attending the school. The investigation and the testimony presented in Sugarcane reveals widespread abuse of the children by the clergy on top of the generally poor conditions of the school and the racially and culturally imperialistic mission of this system. What’s exceptional about Sugarcane is the way it brings this history to life. These schools have been shuttered for decades but the impact of the abuse remains with the native communities and the decedents of the students. The filmmakers of Sugarcane present the work of activists to raise awareness of what happened at the Indian residential school system and to demand accountability from the Canadian government and from the Catholic Church. Abuse survivors and their family members discuss the conditions of the school and the way the repercussions of abuse rippled through the community over generations. Some of the survivors don’t wish to discuss what happened and for those who do the topic is obviously painful and the filmmakers take an appropriately respectful tone. Sugarcane does not entertain false hope but the filmmakers do find the value in facing the horrors of the past and coming to some reconciliation with it. This documentary may be an important piece in that process.
What Doesn’t: What’s left a bit unclear at the end of Sugarcane is the extent to which what happened at this particular school represents the entire system. The documentary implies that the abuse at the Sugarcane school was systemic, an impression that’s not substantiated but given weight by the school’s association with the Catholic Church. Sugarcane is part of a genre of documentaries about clerical child abuse including Mea Maxima Culpa, Deliver Us from Evil, and The Forgotten Maggies. As such, Sugarcane reiterates narratives about the church and its abuses that we’ve heard before. However, the documentary does extend that understanding to the native community, further illustrating the extent of the problem.
Bottom Line: Sugarcane takes on a difficult subject matter with humanity and sensitivity. The subject isn’t pleasant but the examination of history is necessary to understand the present. Sugarcane does an exceptional job putting that history in tangible and human dimensions.
Episode: #1030 (January 5, 2025)