‘Sugarcane’ Trailer: One of the Year’s Best Docs Illuminates the Horror of a First Nations Boarding School

“Sugarcane” illuminates the generational trauma inflicted on First Nations youth at the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in British Columbia — just one example of widespread abuse in the Canadian Indian residential school system that resulted in Pope Francis apologizing for the Catholic Church’s role in the horrors. Physical and sexual abuse were rampant at these institutions that Indigenous youth were forced to attend by the Canadian government as an exercise in forcible assimilation, and some students disappeared altogether, later to be found in unmarked graves. (The U.S. had its own version of these boarding schools as shown on “1923.” )

'Unsettled' Trailer: Bella Thorne Directs a Short Film Based on a True Queer Revenge Saga

National Geographic picked up “Sugarcane” — the title comes from another name for the Williams Lake First Nation — out of Sundance. The film, directed by Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat, had won the Directing Prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition there. Then in April my fellow jurors Eric Deggans (TV critic, NPR), Wren Arthur (producer and co-founder, Olive Pictures), and Jaie Laplante (artistic director, DOC NYC) awarded it Best Documentary at the Sarasota Film Festival . At the time we wrote in our jury statement that “the filmmakers do not lose sight of the extraordinary culture of this community and balance major historical truths with profoundly intimate moments.”

I added in a speech awarding the prize to “Sugarcane” that “it’s a really hard film to watch in a lot of ways. It’s very much about abuse and trauma and the extraordinary ripple effects of that across generations and across an entire community and nation. But I think that the way it combines that history with really intimate moments is poetic and really beautiful and something that needs to be celebrated, and I can’t wait to see what happens as more people see get to see this film.”

At Sundance, Esther Zuckerman reviewed “Sugarcane” for IndieWire, named it a Critics Pick with an A- grade and said, “‘Sugarcane’ doesn’t force conclusions that aren’t there. Instead, it lets the empty parts of the saga linger so the ghosts of what transpired feel present.”

Trash on the Half Shell, 'Humanoids from the Deep' Presents a Tortured Sea Creature Feature

“Sugarcane” represents yet another quality documentary acquisition for National Geographic , which was a major player in last year’s Oscar race with “The Mission” — as well as “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” which earned a Best Documentary Feature nomination.

Watch the trailer below.