“There Wasn’t A Dry Eye”: Williams Lake Chief On The Documentary Sugarcane

A local documentary two and a half years in the making had it’s premiere this past weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah.

Sugarcane, a film that sheds more light on Williams Lake First Nation’s investigation into the the former St Joseph’s Mission Residential School was shown to an audience of 400-plus people.

Chief Willie Sellars was in attendance and said it was emotional to sit through the documentary which he and the Council had screened before it’s premiere.

He said going to the front and then having to address the crowd with cast members and directors, that was extremely emotional for him as well.

“But the one thing I thought was most impactful I thought was, you know you get to the front and look out into the hundreds of people that are in attendance and there weren’t many dry eyes sitting in that crowd. The impact that this film is going to have moving forward and telling the truth and and acknowledging the history and legacy of Residential Schools is going to be pretty powerful.”

He noted that Julian and Emily and Chris, the Director of Cinematography, were filming in the community for the past two and a half years.

“What makes it to the screen was interesting but you just have to hold up again the courage and the bravery of survivors Charlene Belleau, Ed NoiseCat, and the late Rick Gilbert because their courage and bravery to share their story to a worldwide audience is something.” Sellars said, “The conversations that we continue to have around this was that the story is just too important not to tell and it came through in the way they were able to put it together and deliver it on that screen is something special.”

Now that the film has been viewed we asked Sellars what WLFN would like to see it’s future be after a distributor picks it up.

“But from there the goal would be in our opinion and what we want to see is, we want to see this film a part of the curriculum in every single school in this country. After seeing it and after hearing the reviews and the feedback, that’s not an unattainable goal and that is something we will be pushing for.”

– with files from Pat Matthews, My Cariboo Now staff