Sugarcane [SUNDANCE AWARD WINNER]

Directing Award: US Documentary, Sundance Film Festival. In 2021 an investigation of unmarked graves at an Indian residential school and long-circulating, long-denied, rumors of physical and sexual abuse at St. Joseph’s Mission, a Catholic-run Indigenous boarding school that operated until 1981 in British Columbia, ignite a reckoning in the lives of survivors and their descendants, including the film’s co-director whose father was born—and nearly buried—at the school. Both intimate and epic, Sugarcane follows co-director Julian Brave NoiseCat and others as the investigation ranges from the school grounds to the Vatican. Drawing on their backgrounds in activism and journalism — as well as NoiseCat's own personal connection to the story and community — the filmmakers deftly weave together multiple strands to form this compelling, heartbreaking narrative. Demonstrating unparalleled humanity, compassion, and grace for the affected Indigenous communities in North America, their powerful documentary operates from a place of pure and total empathy. At the same time, NoiseCat and Kassie recognize the resilience of the survivors and their descendants, and their unflagging determination to seek answers to long-buried secrets.