Sugarcane
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 was 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.
Opens Friday, August 9
Ottawa, ON - Bytowne Cinema
Saskatoon, SK - The Roxy Theatre
Williams Lake, BC - Paradise Cinemas
Wetaskiwin, AB - Wetaskiwin Cinemas
Winnipeg, MB - Dave Barber Cinematheque
Victoria, BC - Vic Theatre
Opens Friday, August 16
Los Angeles, CA - Laemmle Royal
Chicago, IL - Gene Siskel Film Center
San Francisco, CA - Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema
Omaha, NE - Film Streams' Ruth Sokolof Theater
San Diego, CA - Digital Gym Cinema
Oklahoma City, OK - Rodeo Cinema
Sarasota, FL - Burns Court Cinema
Santa Fe, NM - SWAIA Museum of Art and Culture
August 16, 17, 18: 2pm Showtime, First Come, First Served
Ottawa, ON - Bytowne Cinema
Opens Thursday, August 22
Sudbury, ON - Sudbury Indie Cinema
Opens Friday, August 23
Santa Fe, NM - Center for Contemporary Arts
Seattle, WA - SIFF Cinema Uptown
Columbus, OH - Gateway Film Center
Duluth, MN - Zinema 2
St. Louis, MO - Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema
Lincoln, NE - The Ross
Shreveport, LA - Robinson Film Center
Milwaukee, WI - The Oriental Theatre
Hamilton, ON - The Westdale
Opens Friday, August 30
New Orleans, LA - Prytania Theaters at Canal Place
Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Flagstaff, AZ - Harkins Theatres Flagstaff 16
Shea, AZ - Harkins Theatres Shea 14
San Francisco, CA - Roxie
Indianapolis, IN - Kan-Kan Cinema
Sag Harbor, NY - Sag Harbor Cinema
Opens Friday, September 6
Coral Gables, FL - Coral Gables Art Cinema
Denver, CO - Sie FilmCenter
Key West, FL - Tropic Cinema
Opens Friday, September 13
Pittsburgh, PA - Harris Theater
Akron, OH - The Nightlight
Millerton, NY - Moviehouse
Opens Monday, September 23
Toronto, ON - Kingsway Theatre
Opens Friday, September 27
Montreal, QC - Cinéma du Parc
Opens Wednesday, October 16
Winthrop, WA - The Barnyard Cinema
Opens Sunday, October 20
Hartford, CT - Cinestudio
Opens Thursday, October 24
Hanover, NH - Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth
Opens Monday, October 28
Staunton, VA - Visulite Cinema
Opens Tuesday, October 29
Columbia, SC - The Nickelodeon
Opens Thursday, October 31
Amherst, NS - Sackville Film Society, Amherst Theatre
Opens Thursday, November 7
Ithaca, NY - Cornell Cinema
Opens Friday, November 8
Honolulu, HI - HoMA Doris Duke Theatre
Opens Friday, November 15
Hanover, NH - Hopkins Center for the Arts
Opens Friday, November 22
Flint, MI - Flint Institute of Arts
Opens Tuesday, November 26
Traverse City, MI - State Theatre
Meet the Filmmakers
-
JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT
DIRECTORJulian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, SUGARCANE, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie, he is concurrently finishing 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. NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and has been recognized with many 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, NoiseCat was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders alongside the starting point guard of his fantasy basketball team, Luka Doncic. Before turning full-time to writing and filmmaking, NoiseCat was a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer. In 2019, he helped lead a grassroots effort to bring an Indigenous canoe journey to San Francisco Bay to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation. Eighteen canoes representing communities from as far north as Canada and as far west as Hawaii participated in the journey, which was covered by dozens of local and national media outlets, including The New York Times. In 2020, he was the first to publicly suggest that Deb Haaland should be appointed Interior Secretary. Working with leaders from Indian Country as well as the progressive and environmental movements, NoiseCat helped turn the idea into a sophisticated inside-outside campaign that drew support from celebrities, activists and even a few conservative politicians. When Haaland was sworn in she became the first Native American cabinet secretary in United States history.
-
EMILY KASSIE
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHEREmily Kassie is an Emmy® and Peabody®-nominated investigative journalist and filmmaker. Kassie shoots, directs and reports stories on geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the people caught in the crossfire. Her work for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Netflix, and others ranges from drug and weapons trafficking in the Saharan desert, to immigrant detention in the United States. In 2021, she smuggled into Taliban territory with PBS Newshour correspondent Jane Ferguson to report on their imminent siege of Kabul and targeted killing of female leaders. Her work has been honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow, World Press Photo and National Press Photographers awards. Her multimedia feature on the economic exploitation of the Syrian and West African refugee crises won the Overseas Press Club Award and made her the youngest person to win a National Magazine award. She previously oversaw visual journalism at Highline, Huffington Post’s investigative magazine, and at The Marshall Project. Kassie was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020 and is a 2023 New America fellow. Her first documentary, I Married My Family’s Killer, following couples in post-genocide Rwanda, won a Student Academy Award in 2015.
-
KELLEN QUINN
PRODUCERKellen 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), Asher Levinthal’s Shaken (DOC NYC 2023), 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.
-
CHRISTOPHER LAMARCA
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHYChristopher LaMarca is a director and Emmy®-nominated cinematographer currently based in Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest. His work has screened in top festivals worldwide including SXSW, Berlinale, The Museum of Modern Art, True/False, and Hot Docs, and has received several special jury awards including being nominated for Cinema Eye Honors. Christopher was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine and is a Sundance Institute Edit and Story Lab film fellow. After 10 years on the road as an award-winning magazine photojournalist (Time / Rolling Stone/ GQ), his monograph, Forest Defenders: the Confrontational American Landscape was published by powerHouse Books. Compelled to translate his photography work to the screen, Christopher switched media and brought his intimate and raw visual aesthetic to film. His love for immersive observational filmmaking and sonic soundscapes weave in and out of some of the most pressing social and cultural issues of the moment. Recently Christopher served as the Director of Photography on the documentary series Nuclear Family, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and is currently streaming on HBO Max.
-
NATHAN PUNWAR
EDITORNathan Punwar is a documentary film editor whose recent credits include two feature films with director Nadia Hallgren - Becoming (2020, Netflix), based on Michelle Obama’s memoir of the same title, and Civil (2022, Netflix), following civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Other notable recent work includes editing for the docu-series The New York Times Presents (Hulu), and additional editing on Frank Oz’s film adaptation of Derek Delgaudio’s In And Of Itself (Hulu). His short-form and episodic editing work has appeared on PBS, The New Yorker, Topic, and Field of Vision. His first feature documentary film as editor was an archival documentary for The Rolling Stones - Charlie Is My Darling, Ireland 1965 (New York Film Festival 2012 Selection).
-
MAYA DAISY HAWKE
EDITORMaya Daisy Hawke was editor on BAFTA, Oscar and double Sundance Audience Award-winning, Navalny, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (dir. Werner Herzog). Supervising Editor credits include Joonam (Sundance 2023), Black Box Diaries (Sundance 2024), After a Revolution (IDFA 2022), A Photographic Memory (True/False 2024) and Band (2022 HotDocs). She has also edited doc series for the BBC and commercials for Apple. She was an assistant editor on eight films with Werner Herzog, including Grizzly Man. Her own experimental films have been exhibited and performed at the Museum of Moving Image, NYC; Sundance FF; ICA Frames of Representation, London; LACMA; Camden International FF and IDFA. She is the co-director, with Joe Bini, of Little Ethiopia, a live documentary. She has been an advisor at seven Sundance labs since 2017, a fellow at the 2018 Sundance Nonfiction Directors Residency, and a Sundance Interdisciplinary Fellow in 2020. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
-
MALI OBOMSAWIN
COMPOSERMali Obomsawin is a bassist, singer and composer from Odanak First Nation, and one of GRAMMY.com’s top ten emerging jazz artists to watch this year. Her debut album “Sweet Tooth” (Out of Your Head Records, 2022) garnered international acclaim and was named in ‘best of the year’ lists from The Guardian, NPR, and JazzTimes upon its release. Evocative and thunderous, “Sweet Tooth” delivers a gripping and dynamic performance, seamlessly melding chorale-like spirituals, folk melodies, and post-Albert Ayler free jazz. Obomsawin’s ensemble occupies a musical universe completely their own, bringing skronk and reverence to every stage.
Directed By Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie
Produced by Emily Kassie, Kellen Quinn
Director of Photography Christopher LaMarca
Cinematography By Emily Kassie
Edited by Nathan Punwar, Maya Daisy Hawke
Music By Mali Obomsawin
Executive Producers Carolyn Bernstein, Bill Way, Elliott Whitton, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Tegan Acton, Emma Pompetti, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Grace Lay, Sumalee Montano, Sabrina Merage Naim, Douglas Choi, Adam & Melony Lewis, Meadow Fund, JanaLee Cherneski & Ian Desai, David & Linda Cornfield, Maida Lynn, Robina Riccitiello, Nina & David Fialkow
Indian residential school history and its impact are not in the past. For more information on the film’s impact campaign, please visit here.
If you need support, the following resources are available:
CANADA
The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line provides 24-hour crisis support
to former Indian Residential School students and their families toll-free at 1-866-925-4419.
First Nations, Inuit and Métis seeking immediate emotional support
can contact the Hope for Wellness Help Line toll-free at 1-855-242-3310, or by online chat at hopeforwellness.ca.
UNITED STATES
Call or text 988 or visit www.988lifeline.org to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.