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Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket Documentary
Inspired to know more about his father’s time at residential school, artist Carey Newman created the Witness Blanket—a national monument that commemorates the experiences of residential school survivors. This film sheds light on the journey of creating the Witness Blanket and how, in making this piece, it released the truth, pain and resiliency.
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PowWow at Duck Lake
Members of the National Youth Council, including Duke Redbird and Harold Cardinal, actively resist and use their voices to tackle issues of colonization. They have a powerful exchange with a hostile priest to work towards their goal of creating awareness about residential schools, denial of citizenship rights, loss of language, mass incarceration and how these…
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Red Path
This short documentary tells the story of Tony Chachai, a young Indigenous man in search of his identity. Moved by the desire to reconnect with his Atikamekw roots, he delivers a touching testimony on the journey that brought him closer to his family and community. On the verge of becoming a father himself, he becomes…
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Regalia: Pride in Two Spirits
Duane Stewart-Grant, from the Haisla and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations retells his personal journey as a Two-Spirit Indigenous person who is reclaiming his identity against the backdrop of intergenerational trauma, colonization, and residential schools. Through his narration we learn about the sacred roles of Two-Spirit People and how their positions were dismantled through enforced gender roles.
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Returning Home
Stiller unpacks the current realities of the Secwépemc Peoples, who have and continue to be impacted by colonization. Stiller follows Phyllis Jack-Webstad, the survivor who founded the Orange Shirt Day movement, as she recounts her childhood trials to youth across the country. Through Jack-Webstad’s narrative we not only see the direct consequences of the residential…
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Second Stories – Deb-we-win Ge-ken-am-aan, Our Place in the Circle
Lorne Olson’s short documentary discusses his own journey as a two-spirited person and shares stories of other two-spirited individuals. They come together to share culture and identity to create Lorne’s vision of laughing, dancing, two-spirited people who are certain of their purpose in the world.
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Sisters & Brothers
In a pounding critique of Canada’s colonial history, this short film draws parallels between the annihilation of the bison in the 1890s and the devastation inflicted on the Indigenous population by the residential school system. This film is part of Souvenir, a series of four films addressing Indigenous identity and representation by reworking material in…
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Spirit to Soar — Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin
This documentary examines the hard truths of racism around the deaths of seven high school students in the northern city of Thunder Bay from 2000–2011. Spirit to Soar is a closer look at what has happened in the wake of the inquest into the students’ deaths, and how families and communities have struggled to carry…
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Sta – Healing Journey One Button at a Time
This is a short documentary following Mia Hunt and her making of a button blanket. The button blanket, unique to First Nations of the Pacific Northwest, is a treasured and important piece of Coast Salish culture.
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Stolen Children: Residential Survivors Speak Out
This short documentary shares residential school survivors’ stories of the atrocious violent acts that happened in these systems as a way of speaking their truth and shedding light on how the schools were fundamentally an act of assimilation.
Land Acknowledgement
The UBC School of Social Work acknowledges that we are situated on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) People.