Residential schools
Bihttoš
Commissioned by the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival for the Embargo Collective II, Bihttoš is an unconventional documentary that explores the complex relationship between a father and daughter. Through animation, re-enactments and family photos, Writer/Director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers delves into the dissolution of her parents' mythic love story and how past injustices have coloured her perception of love.
Finding Our Way
Three 30-minute films, made in partnership with two First Nations bands in the Carrier territory of north central British Columbia, describe conflict over land and sovereignty and ask if there is a way forward.
Fractured Land
"Deep down we're all fractured," an oil and gas representative tells young Aboriginal leader and lawyer Caleb Behn. Behn knows that feeling all too well, as he struggles with the role he'll play in protecting his traditional territory under Treaty 8 in northern British Columbia, an area that is currently under siege from some of the world's largest natural gas operations.
Hidden Legacies
This documentary, directed by Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson, profiles young people whose parents and grandparents attended government-initiated, church-run, Indian Residential Schools.
How a People Live
The Gwa'sala and 'Nakwaxda'xw First Nations people lived as two distinct groups along Canada's northwest coast. How A People Live traces their history, from traditions documented by Franz Boas and Edward Sheriff Curtis, the Indian Residential School experience and a forced relocation from traditional territories in 1964, to return visits to their homelands that ignited the healing process and aroused interest in rich cultural traditions.
Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle
This moving documentary celebrates the healing and transformation of the Coast Salish people who were once students at the Kuper Island Indian Residential School.
North Boys: The Story of Jimmy and Charlie
In 1944, Charlie Post and Jimmy Dennis were both removed from their families to attend the Le Jac Indian Residential School. Just 10 years old, they never saw their families again. They share their experiences of event that illustrate why both men have spent a lifetime trying to overcome the impact of that traumatic day and the eight years that followed.
The Power of the Spirit
Family relationships and traditional teachings of Indigenous people were severely disrupted by the Canadian Government and church-run Residential and Confessional schools from the late 1800s until well into the 20th century. The Power of the Spirit explores state-sanctioned attempts to “take the Indian out of the child” and the efforts Indigenous people embarked on in the 1950s and 60s to chart new grounds for education and spirituality based on traditional learning.
Project Eagle Feather: When They Took the Children
In reaction to the recent rise of aboriginal children taken into government care, Project Eagle Feather: When They Took The Children reveals the previously untold stories of First Nations' experiences growing up in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
SAVAGE
This short drama, described by the creators as "a residential school musical," evokes memories of the residential school experience as children in a classroom make their imaginary escape from bitter realities of their daily experiences.
Shi-shi-etko
Based on the children's book Shi-shi-etko by Nicola Campbell, this beautiful story follows a young Aboriginal girl on the last four days before she is taken to residential school.
Shin-chi's Canoe
Based on the children's book Shin-chi's Canoe by Nicola Campbell, this short fiction film is set in the 1960s. Shin-chi leaves for his first year at Indian Residential School with his sister Shi-shi-etko. The secret gift of a tiny cedar canoe carved by his father sustains him through his first year of separation from family and culture.
Suckerfish
When she was ten, Lisa Jackson fled Toronto to live with relatives in Vancouver to escape her mother's depression, alcoholism and prescription drug abuse - legacies of the residential school experience. Now, sifting through her memories and her mother's letters, she constructs a portrait of a mother whose drive to love her daughter triumphed over her demons of addiction.
We Carry Each Other's Memories
In this collaboration between Marilyn Simon Ingram (IRS survivor and advocate), Barb Martin and Outreach Productions, Indian Residential School survivors in Atlantic Canada reflect on their experiences with the Shubenacadie Residential School in central Nova Scotia.
