Come join us in watching Sugarcane and participating in a Q&A with panelists Rhonda Anderson (Iñupiaq – Athabascan), founder and former co-director of Ohketeau Cultural Center and Native Youth Empowerment Foundation; Anthony Melting Tallow (Siksika Blackfoot First Nation), visual artist and writer; and Chris Newell, founding director of the Native American Cultural Program at the University of Connecticut and co-founder/director of Education at Akomawt Educational Initiative.

Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is a stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation into abuse and death at an Indian residential school, the film is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves near a residential school run by the Catholic church in Canada sparked a national outcry about the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse many children experienced at this network of segregated boarding schools designed to slowly destroy the culture and social fabric of Indigenous communities. When Kassie, a journalist and filmmaker, asked her old friend and colleague, NoiseCat, to direct a film documenting the Williams Lake First Nation investigation of St. Joseph’s Mission, she never imagined just how close this story was to his own family. During the filming, Kassie and NoiseCat encountered both the extraordinary pain these individuals had to suppress as a tool for survival and the unique beauty of a group of people finding the strength to persevere.

This event is free and open to the Springfield College community and the public.

If you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to fully participate in this event, please contact Wendy Franz as soon as possible at wfranz@springfield.edu or (413) 748-3646 to discuss your accessibility needs.

Image Credit: Sugarcane Film LLC

A Wellness Passport Event