- Franz Stapelberg and Robert Gary Miller for The Mush Hole
Canada
Across the span of 130 years, approximately 150,000 First Nations children were placed in roughly 150 residential schools across Canada. These children were stripped of their language and culture to conform to the white dominant society. This film will tell the stories of trauma and abuse experienced by school survivors, as well as their resilience and healing. This film needs to be made NOW so that these critical first-hand accounts are not lost. It comes at an important moment politically, as one of the recommendations of the recent Canadian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was to raise awareness of the residential school experience.
‘The Mush Hole’ feature length documentary will profile the Mohawk residential school in Brantford Ontario, which is one of the last remaining schools in Canada, and currently being restored as a museum as part of the Save the Evidence campaign. The film will explore how and why the residential school system was established and also tell a more recent story; the limitations of the recent TRC and lessons that can be learned. The film will uniquely expose the role of the perpetrators through the use of historical evidence from the Anglican Church, Canadian government and testimonies of survivors.
Comments