The filmmaker Tasha Hubbard discusses her new documentary screening at DOXA, the Documentary Film Festival next week, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a look at the life and death of Colten Boushie, and his family’s journey for justice, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

An outstanding film screening this week at DOXA, the Documentary Film Festival is the latest from the filmmaker Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up. It opened the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto last week, and it documents the painful journey of the family of Colten Boushie, who in the summer of 2016, was shot to death by Gerald Stanley. The trial and acquittal of Stanley provoked outrage across the country, and raised important questions about the judicial system in Canada. This film also looks at anti-Indigenous racism in Canada, focussing on the Prairies, where historically it resulted in violence against Indigenous people, and continues to define life certainly in the attitudes that were at the fore of how Boushie’s death was reported, investigated and prosecuted. That there was no remorse on the part of Stanley, and apologists of his shooting, is also looked at in the movie. Dr. Hubbard, who joins me again, appears in the movie as a narrator, and a teacher to her son and nephew, teaching them about their traditions, their place in society, and this necessary history. It’s a very effective film, and documents too, the painful path for Colten’s family through the trial and various meetings with powerful politicians in Saskatchewan, in Ottawa, and even at a meeting at the United Nations. Tasha Hubbard is a writer, filmmaker, and an associate professor at the University of Alberta. Her debut film project Two Worlds Colliding was critically acclaimed and won numerous awards. Her 2017 film, Birth of a Family, which she was previously on this program with, also premiered at Hot Docs, and was an audience favourite. nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up is a National Film Board of Canada production, and will screen Wednesday night, 08 May 2019 at 6.00pm at SFU Woodward’s, and the next night, Thursday, 09 May 2019 at noon at the Vancity Theatre. Visit www.doxafestival.ca for tickets and information. @TashHubbard is her Twitter handle. It is a powerful film, moving and necessary in our time, as well as beautiful in many parts, especially in how it remembers Colten Boushie. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Tasha Hubbard; Dr. Hubbard, good morning.

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