Canadian Women Film Directors Database
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Spirit to Soar -- Film Description:
"Between 2000 and 2011, seven First Nations high school students in Thunder Bay died. Five were found in rivers surrounding Lake Superior. All were forced to leave their homes in order to attend school. Anishinaabe/Polish Canadian journalist Tanya Talaga brought international attention to this tragedy through her award-winning non-fiction book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City. She cannot separate their story from her own, acknowledging, 'I cannot pretend to know what it is like for the parents of the seven to lose a child, but I know something about what it's like to be a bit fractured.' In June 2016, a jury concluded its inquest into the deaths and put forward 145 recommendations. In the years following, Talaga returns to Thunder Bay and her ancestral roots to talk with the family members, Indigenous community leaders and youth whose resilience in the face of unjust colonial systems provide a path forward."
-- Alexander Rogalski


Source:
"Hot Docs" Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. http://www.hotdocs.ca/.