Sugarcane
Synopsis
An investigation of unmarked graves at an Indian residential school ignites 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.
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The Filmmakers
Julian Brave NoiseCat Director
Julian Brave NoiseCat, a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie, is a writer and filmmaker based in the Pacific Northwest. A fellow of the Center for Racial Justice at University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy as well as New America and the Type Media Center, he is currently writing his first book, We Survived the Night, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in North America, Profile Books in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Albin Michel in France and Aufbau Verlag in Germany. A columnist for Canada’s National Observer, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker among other publications and has been recognized with numerous awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors “excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape.” In 2021, he was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders alongside the starting point guard of his fantasy basketball team, Luka Doncic.
Emily Kassie Director & Producer
Emily Kassie is an Emmy and Peabody-nominated investigative journalist and filmmaker. She covers geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, and the stories of people caught in the crossfire for The New York Times, Netflix, PBS Frontline, and The Guardian, amongst others. Her recent directing credits include, Undocumented In The Pandemic (PBS), Anatomy Of Hate (Time), and The End Of Oil Explained (Netflix). Her work has been honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow, Deadline, Overseas Press Club, World Press Photo, Peabody Future of Media, National Press Photographer, and National Magazine awards. Emily previously oversaw visual journalism at Highline, Huffington Post’s investigative magazine, and at The Marshall Project. In 2019, POYi recognized her as Multimedia Journalist of the Year, and in 2020 she was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list. She won the Academy Award for student documentary after graduating from Brown University and was a Gates Scholar at Cambridge, where she completed her masters in International Relations.
Kellen Quinn Producer
Kellen Quinn is an Oscar-nominated producer whose credits include Garrett Bradley's Time (Oscar nominated; Sundance 2020 winner of the Directing Award, US Documentary Competition), Luke Lorentzen's A Still Small Voice (Sundance 2023 winner of the Directing Award, US Documentary Competition) and Midnight Family (shortlisted for Documentary Feature Oscar; Sundance 2019 winner of Special Jury Award for Cinematography, US Documentary Competition), Noah Hutton’s In Silico (DOC NYC 2020), Daniel Hymanson’s So Late So Soon (True/False 2020) and Viktor Jakovleski's Brimstone & Glory (True/False 2017; aired on POV). Kellen was selected for the Dear Producer Award in 2023 and DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 class in 2020. In 2017 and 2018, he participated in the Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Lab and Fellowship. In 2016, he was among six producers selected for Impact Partners’ Documentary Producers Fellowship. With Luke Lorentzen, Kellen co-founded the independent production company Hedgehog Films.
Festivals & Awards
Sundance Film Festival
2024
World Premiere
Winner - U.S. Documentary Directing Award - Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
2024
Winner - Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award
SFFILM Festival
2024
Winner - Jury Winner, Best Documentary Film Award
SIFF
2024
Winner - Official Competition Special Jury Prize
IFFBoston
2024
Winner - Special Jury Prize
Margaret Mead Film Festival
2024
Winner - Filmmaker Award
Mountainfilm
2024
Winner - Best Documentary Film Award
DC/DOX
2024
Official Selection
Doc Edge
2024
Winner - Best International Feature
Winner - Best International Sound
Provincetown Film
2024
Winner - John Schlesinger Documentary Award: Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Reviews
“Stunning and brutal...as much a piece of art about the sins of the past as it is about living with the memory of those sins in the present...SUGARCANE is something more meaningful than a mere history lesson. It’s a portrait of what remains when injustice occurs.”
“A powerful reckoning...SUGARCANE handles its heavy subject matter without despair. NoiseCat and Kassie find hope in the fact that their story has no obvious conclusion. They weave in surprising moments of levity, uplift their subjects and embrace the turbulent emotional arc of the investigation into St. Joseph’s. In the end, SUGARCANE affirms that if we are to ever rectify the past and present-day violences of colonialism, we have no choice but to act.”
“Every so often, a film comes along that, as if out of nowhere, leaves an unexpected impression...SUGARCANE [is] a perfect example of how to draw in an audience to the film’s powerful message with moments as shocking as any entry into the world of horror.... This is far more than just a film.”
“A MUST-SEE. STUNNING AND SOBERING. It’s immersive and incredibly beautiful, shot like poetry… And because Kassie and Noisecat narrow their focus to the stories of St. Joseph’s survivors and their descendants, it’s breathtaking when they widen out to remind us that these stories are not isolated – that people all over North America are living with the repercussions of truth suppressed and violence enacted in the name of love and faith.”
“Quietly devastating…SUGARCANE is the product of humane and insightful filmmakers who are determined to never let anyone forget, and put their moral outrage to exemplary good use.”
“Demonstrating unparalleled humanity, and compassion for the affected First Nation communities in North America, the powerful documentary operates from a place of pure and total empathy”