Film Screening: Stolen Children: Truth and Reconciliation & Holy Angels

Stolen Children: Truth and Reconciliation

2010, 40min

June 2010 marked the first national hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, aimed at addressing the painful legacy of residential schools in Canada. First Nations, Métis and Inuit survivors began putting their stories on the official record as the Commission commenced its complex work. This collection of six documentaries from The National profiles Justice Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first Aboriginal judge and the head of the Commission; uncovers the personal stories of survivors both on the ground in Winnipeg and across Canada; and gets up-close with 11-year-old Wanekia Morning Star Cooke to hear the younger generation’s take on the residential school experience.

Holy Angels

2017, 13min

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.

To register for these film screenings, visit https://yorku.ca/go/ND4TRfilmscreenings.