The Decolonizing Lens invites you to our residential schools and missing children program where four films will be screened at the Cinematheque with a panel of special guests.
Films will begin at 7PM.
Discussion panelists include: Graham Constant, Raymond Frogner, Susan Enberg, Edmund Metatawabin, and Elder Noel Starblanket.
REMEMBERING THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN (Graham Constant, 2017, 6min)
Premiere of short doc on the Muskowekwan residential school. Raymond Frogner, director of archives; Graham Constant, audio visual technician; and team visited the site of the former Muskowekwan residential school where they toured the school, spoke with Survivors, and learned about the unmarked burials surrounding former school property.
HOLY ANGELS (Jay Cardinal Villeneuve, 2017, 14min)
In 1963, Lena Wandering Spirit became one of the more than 150,000 Indigenous children who were removed from their families and sent to residential school. Jay Cardinal Villeneuve’s short documentary Holy Angels powerfully recaptures Canada’s colonialist history through impressionistic images and the fragmented language of a child. Villeneuve met Lena through his work as a videographer with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Filmed with a fierce determination to not only uncover history but move past it, Holy Angels speaks of the resilience of a people who have found ways of healing—and of coming home again.
FROM UP NORTH (Trudy Stewart, 2016, 14min)
From Up North is a personal, poetic short documentary directed by Trudy Stewart based on her experience working for the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Noel Starblanket shares his experiences of attending the Lebret Indian Residential School. While listening to Noel’s stories, Trudy reflects on her time listening to survivors’ stories and her connection to the Indian Residential School legacy.
IN JESUS’ NAME: SHATTERING THE SILENCE OF ST. ANNE’S RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL (Susan Enberg, 2017, 42min)
In Jesus’ Name: Shattering the Silence of St. Anne’s Residential School is a poignant all-indigenous English and Cree-English collaborative documentary film that breaks long-held silences imposed upon indigenous children who were interned at the notoriously violent St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany First Nation, Ontario. Use of a homemade electric chair at St. Anne’s and the incorporation of testimony about student-on-student abuse makes this documentary stand apart from other films about Canadian residential school experiences.
The Decolonizing Lens is a monthly series that features the work and words of Indigenous artists from Winnipeg and beyond. The series is supported by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Manitoba, the Margaret Lawrence Endowment Fund, and the Indigenous Initiatives Fund. All screenings are free and open to everyone. Posters for the series by the amazing Celeste Sutherland.
