CUT-OFF – the VR film accompanies the VICELAND feature documentary of the same name. Shot on the same day – CUT-OFF looks at the ways in which youth in two communities, Cross Lake and Shoal Lake 40, are coping with both a state of emergency around a wave of suicides, and a lack of access to clean water. The documentary provides an exclusive look at Prime Minister Trudeau’s full-day visit to Shoal Lake 40, the first by a sitting Prime Minister. CUT-OFF in both of its forms, is a story told through largely through the testimonials of residents in Shoal Lake 40 and Cross Lake, where viewers will get a clear sense of Prime Minister Trudeau’s immense responsibility to repair Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal communities.
Intent of Project: A driving idea behind CUT-OFF came from Stewart Redsky – a local leader, parent, former chief, and a residential school survivor. When visitors come to Shoal Lake 40, he says they need to “see and feel” the struggles to understand what it is like to be forcibly disconnected from the rest of Canada the way that his First Nation is. That is what CUT-OFF hopes to accomplish through the voices of young people living in Pimicikamack Cree Nation in northern Manitoba and Shoal Lake 40.
