Residential School Movies

For over 130 years till 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada's First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by...

Cree matriarch Aline Spears survives a childhood in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the...

Follows the life of Native Canadian Saul Indian Horse as he survives residential school and life amongst the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey...

Poet Layli Long Soldier crafts a searing portrait of her Oyate’s connection to the Black Hills, through first contact and broken treaties to...

Ruby is hopeful for a new start with her twin sister as they continue their education at an all-girl's boarding school. However, she soon endures...

A study of life at Christmastime in Moose Factory, an old settlement mainly composed of Cree families on the shore of James Bay, composed entirely of...

The Élan School was a for-profit, residential behavior modification program and therapeutic boarding school located deep within the woods of...

Residential school survivor Jacob struggles to hang onto his family as his demons threaten to manifest.

In 1976, a Mi'gMaq teenager plots revenge against the sadistic Indian agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are...

This Peabody Award-winning documentary from New Mexico PBS looks at the European arrival in the Americas from the perspective of the Pueblo Peoples.

Renowned Haida artist Bill Reid shares his thoughts on artistry, activism and his deep affection for his homeland in this heartwarming tribute from...

Muffins for Granny is a remarkably layered, emotionally complex story of personal and cultural survival. McLaren tells the story of her own...

“Kill the Indian to save the man” was the catchphrase of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school opened in Pennsylvania...

On a summer day in the 1950s, a native girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in...

A poetic exploration of the multi-generational affects of Canada's Indian Residential School system, based on the personal trials of Aboriginal...

A poignant all-Indigenous English and Cree-English collaborative documentary that breaks long-held silences imposed upon indigenous children who were...

In the 50 years since he carved his first totem pole, Robert Davidson has come to be regarded as one of the world’s foremost modern artists....

Documentary about the Holy Angels Residential School in Alberta, where hundreds of First Nations children were imprisoned.

This short film from 1958 compiles 3 short reportages on different ways kids are schooled in remote areas. To School by Boat follows children of...

The carefree childhood existence of an Indigenous brother and sister is torn apart when the sister is forced to attend a Residential School far from...