Beyond Boundaries : Sugarcane

Auditorium 

Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, 2024). In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves near an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada sparked a national outcry about the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse many children experienced at this network of segregated boarding schools designed to slowly destroy the culture and social fabric of Indigenous communities. When Kassie- a journalist and filmmaker- asked her old friend and colleague, NoiseCat, to direct a film documenting the Williams Lake First Nation investigation of St Joseph’s Mission, she never imagined just how close this story was to his own family. SUGARCANE follows an investigation into the Canadian Indian residential school system, igniting a reckoning in the lives of survivors and descendants.

Beyond Boundaries Screening & Discussion Series is a distinctive program at Buffalo State that has been running since 2014.  This annual, six-part film series is organized around categories of diversity including, but not limited to race, gender, class, sexuality, and abilities, with an emphasis on intersectionality.  It creates an opportunity for open dialogue on social justice issues among college students, staff, faculty and members of the greater Western New York community. 

Beyond Boundaries is sponsored by the Office of Equity and Campus Diversity, the Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.  All screenings are held in Burchfield Penney Art Center and are free and open to the public.

The series is curated by Professors Ruth Goldman and Meg Knowles