Award-winning documentary from Canadian Geographic Films to premiere at film festivals across Canada this fall Français
Returning Home, the first feature documentary from Can Geo Films and Secwépemc director Sean Stiller, interweaves Canada's history of residential schools with the plight of Pacific wild salmon.
OTTAWA, Sept. 28, 2021 /CNW/ - Returning Home, the award-winning debut documentary from Canadian Geographic Films and Secwépemc filmmaker Sean Stiller, is set to premiere at Canadian film festivals this week.
The film profiles Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Jack-Webstad and her family's struggle to heal from the multigenerational impact of attending the notorious St. Joseph's Mission Residential School in Secwépemc territory. In an interweaving storyline, amidst a global pandemic and the lowest salmon run in Canadian history, Returning Home also explores how a multi-year federal fishing moratorium tears at the very fabric of Secwépemc communities and centuries-old traditions.
Leading up to Canada's first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (September 30th), Returning Home will have its world theatrical premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival on September 29th. It will then premiere at the Edmonton and Vancouver International Film Festivals that same week and be available online for pass holders of the Lunenburg Doc Fest beginning Sunday, September 26.
The film has already garnered multiple award nominations, including nods for Lunenburg's Audience Award and Best Feature categories, and has been announced as the winner of Calgary International Film Festival's Best Canadian Documentary Award presented by the Director's Guild of Canada. In a message for CIFF, Stiller expressed his immense gratitude for the award win, saying: "Returning Home is my first feature-length film and very much a labour of love. When we found out that we were part of the official selection for this year's Calgary international Film Festival, that was exciting enough news on its own. But, to be told we won Best Canadian Documentary was truly humbling. It's hard to imagine a better possible outcome for this film."
Canada's Indian residential school legacy and the decimation of wild pacific salmon stem from a common story: a world where relationships are severed in the service of power, where we become detached from one another and the complex webs of interdependence that sustain creation. In both systems, neither human nor animal are sacred. In the Secwépemc worldview we are all related.
Stiller hopes that Returning Home can continue to amplify and extend the sacred work that Jack-Webstad does, and continues to do across Canada.
The production of Returning Home was made possible in partnership with the Government of Canada.
Canadian Geographic Films
For nearly a century, Canadian Geographic has been dedicated to making Canada better known to Canadians and to the world, primarily through its award-winning magazine. As our country undergoes significant changes to its population, climate, environment, economy and culture, Canadian Geographic Films is leading a digital transformation to support a greater understanding of Canada's geography — the diverse human and physical landscape — as well as the changes affecting its people and the environment. Returning Home is a true testament to this, as Canadian Geographic Films' first feature documentary. The production company has a number of other projects currently in development, with documentaries and television series slated for release in the year ahead.
SOURCE Royal Canadian Geographical Society
To learn more, or to schedule an interview with Sean Stiller or Phyllis Jack-Webstad, please contact: Keegan Hoban at [email protected]
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