“GRANDMOTHER”

A short documentary film about an elderly Indigenous woman recounting her childhood experiences attending a residential school in Saskatchewan and how this regrettable education system has affected her life. The film doubles as a video portrait of the subject -- my beautiful, strong, and compassionate grandmother, Lorraine.

Project was made at the University of Regina - Department of Film.

In Canada, the residential school system was federally implemented under the Indian Act of 1876 and continued until the last school closed its doors in 1996. Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced to attend these Catholic schools which were designed to assimilate these children into Eurocentric ideals, which resulted in widespread destruction of First Nations culture and yielded countless stories of physical and sexual abuse and traumatic mistreatments. It is estimated that over 6,000 children died while attending residential schools in Canada. For more information visit http://wherearethechildren.ca/