06 Aug PRESS RELEASE: Award-winning documentary SUGARCANE to show at the SLCC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2024
Whistler Film Festival and Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre present the award-winning National Geographic documentary SUGARCANE
(Whistler, BC) – The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is thrilled to partner with the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler in presenting the highly lauded and award-winning National Geographic Documentary SUGARCANE, a stunning tribute to the resilience of Indigenous Peoples and their way of life.
This debut feature documentary from directors Julian Brave NoiseCat (Tsq’escen/Lil’wat) and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning and a timely presentation in advance of National Day for Truth & Reconciliation.
Brave NoiseCat will be in attendance for an audience Q+A following the screening.
SUGARCANE
Thursday, August 22, 2024 | 7:30 pm
Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre Theatre
Tickets: $20 + GST visit bit.ly/SugarcaneWhistler
The film will have a private screening for Nation members prior to the evening show to allow cultural safety and community support.
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.
“This film was born of haunting truths and mythic forces. It was made through the combined perspectives of insiders and outsiders,” said co-director Brave NoiseCat, whose own story, along with his father Ed Archie NoiseCat (Tsq’escen/Lil’wat) became an integral part of this beautiful multi-stranded portrait of a community. “From the outset, we knew that SUGARCANE needed to convey how the past is present for the survivors of residential schools and their descendants. How the death toll from a century-long colonial effort by the Church and government continues to rise. So for nearly three years, we lived alongside our participants, feeling the rawness of their pain and bearing witness to the bravery in their resilience, while documenting a vibrant world in a moment of historic reckoning.
“Throughout, we were drawn to the contradictions we saw in the lives of our subjects: of faith, of culture, of the beauty and weight of home and family, when those things have been so fundamentally broken, and of the pursuit of truth, which can both liberate and kill. But we also connected to the parts of this experience that transcended: of the humanity that called our subjects to a greater, lasting purpose at the moment it mattered most; of the connection between departed ancestors and loved ones and the people they left behind; and of the forces that, for some reason, brought us together to tell this story.”
JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT – Director
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, SUGARCANE, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and descendant of the Lil’wat Nation of Mount Currie.
EMILY KASSIE – Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Emily Kassie is an Emmy and Peabody-nominated investigative journalist and filmmaker. Kassie shoots, directs and reports stories on geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the people caught in the crossfire. Her work for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Netflix, and others ranges from drug and weapons trafficking in the Saharan desert, to immigrant detention in the United States.
Discover more at whistlerfilmfestival.com and slcc.ca/sugarcane-film
Director Julian Brave NoiseCat will be in attendance for a Q+A following the screening
Trailer | | Press Notes | Poster Art | High-res photography+ | Photo credits & captions
Media inquiries:
Kirsten Andrews, Marketing & Communications Manager, Whistler Film Festival
marketing@whistlerfilmfestival.com | 604-764-7040
Nadija Veach, Marketing Manager, Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre
nadija.veach@slcc.ca | 604-964- 0995
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The Whistler Film Festival Society is situated on the shared unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and Lil̓wat7úl (Lil’wat) Nation. The WFFS is a charitable organization (#856677844 RR 001) dedicated to furthering the art and business of film by providing programs that focus on the discovery, development, and promotion of new talent culminating in the highly-respected Whistler Film Festival and Content Summit each December. In all its programs, WFF strives for gender parity, inclusivity and diversity.
The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Líḻwat7ul Cultural Centre (SLCC) in Whistler embodies the spirit of partnership between two unique Nations: the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation) and the Líḻwat7ul (Lil’wat Nation) – to preserve, grow and share their traditional cultures. A First Nations Museum, Gallery and Gift Shop, Thunderbird Café, and extraordinary events space, the SLCC is an authentic Indigenous-owned organization, employing over 90 per cent Indigenous Ambassadors, and is a non-profit registered charity – The Spo7ez Cultural Centre and Community Society.
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