Whitman College’s Office of Native American Outreach invites the public to a film screening of SUGARCANE.

This film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film (Academy Awards, Oscars), won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival, won Best Documentary Film with the National Board of Review, won Best True Crime Documentary and Best Political Documentary with the Critic's Choice Documentary Awards, won Outstanding Cinematography with Cinema Eye Honors, and won Best Documentary Feature/Film with San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle & Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics.

It is a stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life. SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools were brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

While the film exposes deeply painful truths, the co-directors (Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie) emphasize that it is ultimately a portrait of Indigenous endurance, community strength, and deep human connection. Because of its heavy content, the film may trigger strong emotions. The interviews and footage include moderate profanity and strong language.

The audience is encouraged to wear ORANGE on September 30 and to the screening. September 30 is officially observed as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (also known as Orange Shirt Day) in Canada and the National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools in the United States to: 1) Honor survivors of Indigenous boarding schools in Canada and the U.S. 2) Remember children who never returned home.  3) To confront a tragic chapter of this shared history. and 4) To acknowledge the systematic, generational trauma depicted in films like SUGARCANE, specifically, the forced removal and cultural assimilation of hundreds of thousands of Native children.