Don’t let the setting fool you. Sugarcane may take place in Canada, but the bloody crime scene fingerprints track all the way here to Nebraska. The documentary is a haunting, wildly upsetting attempt to hold the Catholic Church to account for its mistreatment of Native American populations. “Good luck with that,” says several thousand years of history.
The film focuses on Canadian Indian residential schools, the campuses of which saw abuses that will shock even those folks fatigued by the litany of Catholicism’s sins at this point. These schools were all over North America. I was provided a list of 10 that existed in our own state. One was even located right here: the Omaha Mission. The last such school closed in 1997. Again, that is the year 1997. Just wanted to repeat that for the willfully ignorant who attempt to convince everyone that these monstrous deeds are well “in the past.”
Directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat have made something remarkable with Sugarcane. It is wholly devoid of sensationalism or scandal. It is reverent and respectful about the trauma inflicted without ever coming close to lurid depictions. It follows an investigation by the Williams Lake First Nation into a pattern of infanticide at the segregated boarding school. A classic “red string” investigation board draws connections between priests and dead children. You know you are in for an emotional gut punch when you see babies divided into categories involving incinerators.
And yet, Sugarcane is beautiful and patiently poetic. It is not a deluge of crimes but the tortured exhale of a community still suffering. NoiseCat appears in the film, as his father was at the school. In fact, his dad is revealed to have barely survived incineration. Another victim is shown travelling to Italy. Now a devout Catholic, he shared information about children tortured by the church with officials. As investigator Charlene Belleau works with survivors to piece together who should be held to account, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a commemoration.
None of it fixes anything. None of it can be fixed. None of it can be understood. It can only be observed, digested, and incorporated into the future of who we want to be as people.
Sugarcane is a surprisingly easy watch, given the subject matter. That is to say, Kassie and NoiseCat strike a stunning balance between showing and telling. There’s no wave of talking heads to lecture about context. We still get it. They don’t work in some linear fashion as if this is one of those exciting “cold cases” that sets true crime fans a’tingle. The injustice is still evident. They refuse to break down the traditional Native practices shown for outsiders. Those aren’t for us. The filmmakers just show what was and what is for the people affected, in the hopes that what will be is something better.
When asked by a reporter what he hoped to achieve with his visit, Trudeau says something to the effect of Canada needing to acknowledge their hand in these atrocities. It’s not enough, but it is a far cry from where we are here in America. Everyone in this city drives past the site where these things happened. Be honest, how many of you just realized that right now? If we are ever to fulfill humanity’s promise, films like Sugarcane are at least the first step in how we can get there.
Grade = A
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Carla Hay at Culture Mix says “Sugarcane is not one of those flashy and slick true crime documentaries with quick-cutting editing, actor re-enactments or predictably ominous music. Sugarcane deliberately takes its time to introduce the NoiseCat family and slowly unpeels the layers of secrets and trauma in the family. The haunting stories they tell are similar or the same to those of other families with former St. Joseph’s Mission students.”
Anne Brodie at What She Said says “This beautifully made documentary with a stunning score hits home has excellent production values, it’s hard-hitting and not manipulative, paced to let these unthinkable things sink in, and offers hope as society works towards truth and reconciliation.”
Lisa Laman at Culturess says the “filmmaking approach also humanizes Indigenous lives that those schools were meant to eradicate. A perfect example is NoiseCat and Kassie letting raw footage of one survivor being encouraged to exhibit emotional vulnerability without ham-fisted accompanying music or narration. The focus remains on her story and emotions. Intrusive elements designed to indicate how the audience is feeling right now are M.IA. ‘It’s okay to cry,’ a woman onlooker tells this survivor. ‘Let’s just hold each other.’ Deftly portraying this beautiful exchange epitomizes the specialness of Sugarcane’s richly human craft.”