For starters, Alanis Obomsawin’s latest film is a tad overlong at well over two hours and thirty minutes, partly because there are many static shots of the trial. But it’s tough to determine what could be cut in this humamist presentation of defunding schools for Indigineous students. So perhaps the label for those wanting to indulge in this film by the filmmaking legend is that it’s best to fully appreciate the mastery at hand in its summation of the case and the work being done by Cindy Blackstock.

One of the major surprises of the film is that despite its languid pacing, there is genuine surprise and a sense of a cliffhanger in how this case was going to turn out. The title gives us very little in discovering whether or not common sense would prevail. It is probably the issue of the fact that it almost didn’t matter one if the case was won, that there is shocking content to be found here, and Obomsawin does very little to editorialize the fact.

A must-watch.

[star v=4]