Underplayed Gems

WaaPaKe (2024)

WaaPaKe poster
Directed by
Jules Koostachin
Country
Canada
Runtime
1h 20m
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

This documentary examines the long-lasting trauma caused by Canada's Indian residential school system on Indigenous families. It shares the filmmaker's own family story along with others who are still affected by the legacy of these schools.

somberreflectivepersonalsorrowfulquietly intensehopefulcontemplativeintimate

What happens

WaaPaKe ("Tomorrow") is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jules Arita Koostachin and released in 2023. The film explores the intergenerational impacts that the Canadian Indian residential school system has continued to have on generations of indigenous people who were not themselves students in the system, but have still been deeply scarred by it because of its effects on their parents and grandparents. The film is based in part on Koostachin's own family story, featuring testimony by Koostachin herself, her mother Rita and her son Asivak, about the lingering effects of the residential school system on their family life, and is dedicated to the memory of her brother Steven; however, it also includes interviews with other people who have been impacted by the legacy of residential schools, including other children of survivors and social workers who work with them to confront and heal trauma. The film premiered in the Insights program at the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.