Vancouver Island communities will be among the first in Canada to see Bones of Crows, an award-winning feature film about inter-generational trauma caused by Canada’s residential school system, which kicked off its national community screening tour this week.
Child actors like Testawich were fully supported culturally during filming some of the tough scenes she had to play, said Cricket Testawich, her mother. The film centres around Spears, who was removed from her family home and forced into Canada’s residential school system. Told over a time span of more than 100 years, the film portrays a struggle for survival by the young musical prodigy and her siblings, with Spears and her descendants laying bare a fight against systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse.
The feature film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and has been received with acclaim from audiences around the world at film festivals, including the Vancouver International Film Festival. To get the story out, the public is invited to attend free community screenings ahead of its theatrical release later this year. The screening tour began in Port Hardy Jan. 31, with upcoming screenings on Vancouver Island taking place in Campbell River, Sidney, Victoria, Port Alberni, Ucluelet, Courtenay and Nanaimo.