What We Carry (2025)
CBC Documentary Channel feature directed by Jessie Anthony
Original Score Composed by Maria Lui
In 1963, a restless Jennifer Notley spots an ad in a teacher’s magazine for a position in Northern Alberta. She leaves her life in England and arrives by bush plane to Wabasca-Desmarais—a isolated place with bad roads, no electricity, limited services, and a residential school. Jennifer taught 5 years at Desmarais Indian Residential School as it transitioned from a residential school to a day school. In 2022, her daughter Katrinka and granddaughter Bracken return to this beautiful northern lakeside community in the heart of Treaty 8 territory (one of the largest Treaty Nations in Canada) with questions, carrying a trunk full of history.
Kat McDermott and Willow Auger, both members of the Bigstone Cree nation, introduce Bracken and Katrinka to the community. Together, they open the trunk and open the doors to discovery. In the feature documentary What We Carry, the team searches for truth: who was the Jennifer Notley the students knew, did she help or harm? Along the way, the real teachings arise: we all carry the effects of residential schools, we all lose when a culture is lost.
What We Carry is a message of healing and the first steps on the path to reconciliation. We are all connected, sometimes in unexpected ways.
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ARTICLES:
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July 22, 2024
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Cutting Class Media boards feature doc What We Carry
By Kim Izzo
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The film is commissioned by CBC's Documentary Channel with Cutting Class Media handling international sales.
Prodco and distributor Cutting Class Media has boarded the feature documentary What We Carry.
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What We Carry was commissioned for CBC’s documentary Channel and delves into the interwoven stories of a grandmother who once taught at a residential school and the community she impacted.
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The film is directed by Jessie Anthony and co-written by Anthony and Katrinka Scott. Producing the doc are Bracken Burns, a partner in Cutting Class and head of its scripted division, and Kathleen McDermott under their Sôhkemowin Studios shingle, a majority indigenous owned, Alberta based, production company. CBC’s documentary Channel holds the exclusive first-window rights for Canada and Cutting Class will distribute the feature internationally.
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Filming began in September 2022 in Wabasca-Desmarais, Alta. on Bigstone Cree Nation. Production is expected to wrap by summer’s end.
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The producers tell Playback Daily that relationship-building with the community began in 2022 and followed proper protocols with the Elders Council and the community to begin filming.
The film is financed through the Indigenous Screen Office, the Rogers Documentary Fund, the Canada Media Fund and documentary Channel.
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“The story is deeply personal to me, as it explores the life of my own grandmother. It’s our hope that What We Carry will inspire introspection, understanding, and meaningful action towards healing and reconciliation,” said Burns in a statement.
“What We Carry is one of those incredibly special films that has the ability to spark conversation. We’re honoured to be a part of this project and to bring this impactful and essential story to an even wider audience” said Harriet Luke, Cutting Class’s head of unscripted.
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Photo by Kristin Breitkreutz