Quote:
"When I went to make Night Raiders, I approached a broadcaster and they sent me notes back from a reader. The reader sent very positive notes about the story and the characters, but then said, 'I just don't know if the allegory of residential schools works, because as a country we've moved on from that and priests are no longer harming Indigenous children.' So the question of the story was whether or not it was actually relevant. And that was in the very month that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was releasing its findings about residential schools, so that conversation hadn't even really begun. That's just one tiny example of the barriers that Indigenous filmmakers are up against when [we] navigate the industry. But by the time that I went to make Night Raiders, I feel like the doors were really opening, and we were being embraced and had amazing support from Telefilm and [the Canada Media Fund] and from Ontario Creates. But I think that was because of people pushing for change and saying, repeatedly, that Indigenous people had to be empowered in key creative roles and also have agency over our own storytelling. So it's a really important moment that we should definitely celebrate—and we want to push it forward and keep the momentum going—but it's also important to acknowledge how many years we felt invisible, and that there are still many barriers to overcome."
-- Danis Goulet

Source:
Pacheco, Paloma. "'Night Raiders' broaches residential school trauma through dystopic sci-f: filmmaker Danis Goulet on her newest work, and coping with painful truths through fiction." Interview with Danis Goulet. The Tyee, October 1, 2021.