COLD JOURNEY (1975)

He was called an apple, Red on the outside White on the inside…

15-year-old Buckley (Adventures in Rainbow Country’s Buckley Petawabano) is coming of age torn between two worlds: his stifling experience in a residential school and his hunger for the old traditions of the reserve. But when he returns to visit his family over summer break, his distance from their way of life – and even the Cree language – is painfully apparent. During a disastrous stint living with a white foster family, Buckley deepens his bond with Johnny (King of the Grizzlies star Johnny Yesno), a caretaker at the school who becomes a bridge to Indigenous history and community. Despite this fleeting connection, Buckley grows increasingly disaffected, and his alienation begins to sow the seeds of personal tragedy.      

Loosely inspired by the haunting true story of Anishinaabe boy Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack, the sole fiction feature from National Film Board of Canada documentary veteran Martin Defalco is both deeply empathetic and bracingly unsentimental. Featuring a supporting performance by Chief Dan George (Little Big Man) and several songs by celebrated musician-filmmaker Willie Dunn, Cold Journey remains an essential and withering portrait of Canada’s now-infamous residential school system and its devastating impact on First Nations youth.