‘Sugarcane’ Directors on Unearthing Systemic Abuse at Indian Residential Schools, Working With Lily Gladstone and Meeting Joe Biden: ‘There Is Still Work to Do’

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor It’s been 10 months since “Sugarcane” first premiered at Sundance, where it picked up the Directing Award: U.S.

for documentary. Since then, directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat have landed a worldwide distribution deal with National Geographic Documentary Films and have traveled across the world with their film, now stopping at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam as part of the Best of Fests strand. “Sugarcane” follows a long-coming reckoning at the titular reserve, sparked by the discovery of unmarked graves on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada in 2021.

The documentary explores how Indigenous communities were forced to suppress years of separation, assimilation and abuse committed against their children by a system designed to “solve the Indian problem.” Speaking about the first drive for the film, Kassie, a journalist with years of experience in portraying stories of persecuted peoples and human rights violations, says she had never previously considered turning her gaze to her home country. “When I first heard about the unmarked graves at one of the abusive assimilationist schools, I felt horrified and knew very clearly that this was a story I wanted to follow and that I wanted to do it with Julian.” Kassie and NoiseCat worked together as journalists years prior, with Kassie continuing to follow his work as a writer, storyteller and journalist focusing on Indigenous life in North America. “I was at my sister’s wedding when Julian called me back and it was so important I spoke to him that I stepped out of my sister’s wedding to take his call,” she recalls. “I had just signed a book contract and I had never.