Returning Home

by Sean Stiller
A stunningly shot film explores intergenerational trauma of Residential School survivors, linking Indigenous culture to environmental resilience in BC.
2021  ·  1h12m  ·  Canada
English
English subs
About the Film

Canada’s Residential Schools are the legacy of a world where relationships are severed in the service of power and where people become detached from one another and the complex webs of interdependence. Among the Secwépemc in British Columbia, one such story is that of Phyllis Jack-Webstad, a residential school survivor whose experiences inspired the Orange Shirt Day movement.

RETURNING HOME follows Phyllis on a nationwide educational tour, while her family struggles to heal multigenerational wounds at home in Secwépemc territory. Amid a global pandemic and the lowest salmon run in Canadian history, the film also explores the absence of salmon along the upper Fraser River, and how a multi-year fishing moratorium is tearing at the fabric of Secwépemc communities. By bearing witness to the trauma experienced by Phyllis and her family, RETURNING HOME holds a mirror to the trauma experienced by the natural world, too. For the Secwépemc, healing people and healing the natural world are one and the same.

Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Festivals and Awards
2021
CIFF, WINNER OF 2021 FESTIVAL JURY AWARD
Phyllis Jack (self)
Phyllis Webstad
Producer
Gilles Gagnier
Executive producer
Tim Joyce
Producer
Andrew Lovesey
Cinematographer
Sean Stiller

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