Sugarcane (2024)

Sugarcane 2024

7.3/10
This documentary about the horrors of an Indian residential school is beautifully shot and powerfully told

Everything about Sugarcane is arresting, whether it’s the epic shots of the sweeping reservation (“Canada is our land,” one native announces), the emotional moments shared by survivors of the abusive residential schools, or the damning discoveries they find in an investigation into the Catholic priests. Every second of it is sure to shock and infuriate. Not everything is tragic though. There are slivers of hope, especially from the independently assembled team leading the investigation. The police are apathetic and the suspects are evasive, but despite the deep trauma, pain, and violence the community of Sugarcane has gone through, they persist.

Synopsis

An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.

Storyline

The native community of the Sugarcane Reserve in Canada mount an investigation into the missing children and multiple abuses of a Catholic residential school.

TLDR

Be prepared to be infuriated.

What stands out

Sometimes it gets so intimate, I feel bad for watching. In some of the most private moments, I want the cameraman to stop filming, pull him away almost, to stop us from intruding.