National Indigenous Peoples Day: Tasha Hubbard
Screening Dates
  • June 19, 2020 through
  • June 25, 2020
Free Virtual Screening

The debut documentary of Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard is a blistering exposé on anti-Indigenous police brutality in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the director’s hometown. On January 28, 2000, two White police officers drove Darrell Night, a Cree man, to the outskirts of Saskatoon and abandoned him in a barren field in ‑22° C temperatures. Miraculously, Darrell survived. When the frozen body of 25-year-old Rodney Naistus is found in the same area days later, followed by the body of 30-year-old Lawrence Wegner — both men Indigenous — a disturbing history of the Saskatoon Police Service dumping unruly” First Nations persons outside city limits emerges. Hubbard’s powerful film, winner of the Canada Award at the 2005 Geminis, charts the headline-grabbing investigation into the shocking, unsanctioned police practice known as starlight tours,” while also honing in on the structural racism that not only engenders this conduct, but absolves it. To this day, no officer has been convicted in the freezing deaths” of these Indigenous men. Acclaimed Canadian documentarian Nettie Wild serves as story consultant on the film.

Acknowledgments

The Cinematheque is grateful to Tasha Hubbard and Jane Gutteridge, Community Marketing Manager at the National Film Board of Canada, for their invaluable assistance in making this program possible.

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Note

In light of the ongoing situation, The Cinematheque's theatre will remain closed until further notice. As an organization committed to shared cultural experiences, we will continue to bring you moments of cinematic joy through our online channels and will look forward to welcoming you back to our theatre as soon as it is safe to do so. More information can be found here.