Instruction Hub

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to how the livestream works for classes watching the recording:

1. Read through this Instruction Hub: Everything you need is on this page. You can get an overview now, and then come back any time you need. Notre Plateforme de ressources est également disponible en français ici.

2. Prepare your class: Use the lesson plan and support resources below to get ready for your screening.

3. Show the film: Screen the film for your students. You’ve already ordered the film at registration, so it should arrive in your inbox on the requested date. It should be screened as close as possible before you screen the livestream itself, so it’s fresh in students’ minds.

4. Watch the livestream and engage: While watching the livestream recording, make sure your students use the interactive platform to engage in activities alongside the main event. They can answer polling and quiz questions, and contribute to an extensive, nationwide student discussion board.

5. Share your feedback: After watching, make sure each student completes our student feedback form. Their responses allow us to continue offering our programmes free of charge!

This brand new lesson plan is designed to accompany your screening of Night Raiders and this livestream. Like our support resources, this has been developed in consultation with diverse educators, including those who identify as Indigenous. You can use any or all of the activities to enrich your students’ learning experience before, during, and after the livestream.

The plan includes:

• Resources for discussing race and racism in the classroom
• Pre- and post-viewing activities
• Guiding discussion questions
• Suggested extensions & summative tasks
• Student handouts
• Comprehension and discussion questions for the film

A French version of the lesson plan is available here, and will be delivered directly to those teachers who requested it.

A personal link to stream the film will be sent to your email on or just before the date you requested in our form.

That personal link will provide access to Night Raiders. Please plan for your class to watch it as close as possible to when you screen the livestream, so that it’s still fresh in students’ minds.

For those of you teaching remotely, you may share this link directly with your students, but please make sure to communicate that it is a private link.

If you ordered a DVD of the film, you will receive that in advance of the date you requested.

Please note: Night Raiders contains some mature content and themes. We recommend that grade 9 teachers preview the film in advance, and welcome all teachers to do so if they prefer (if you’ve requested to preview the film, it will arrive in your inbox on the date specified in your registration form). Should you need to provide additional information to parents, teachers, or your administration, please feel free to share this content advisory with them.

We’ve built an interactive platform to use while watching the livestream, so students can engage with our guest, as well as with their peers nationwide. How they do that is up to you:

OPTION 1: Students engage using their own devices at their seats.

OPTION 2: As a class or in small groups, choose a spokesperson — student(s) or you — to use the platform for the whole group. Everyone in the group can contribute their thoughts aloud as they watch the show while the spokesperson enters questions and comments contributed by the group members. You could even get a head start by coming up with some questions in advance.

TIP: Whichever method you choose, test out the online platform beforehand to make sure it’s not blocked by your school board, and so you’re prepared to guide students through the experience as needed.

Activities available on the platform include:

• POLLS – Answer opinion questions around racism, equality, and the film Night Raiders, and see how your experiences compare with other students nationwide.
• QUIZZES – Answer quiz questions centred around the film.
• DISCUSS – Share your thoughts on our discussion questions and contribute to a national conversation.

Don’t worry, we’ll be moderating everything to ensure nothing inappropriate slips through.

There are three different links to participate, depending on how you’d like to set things up on the day.

A. Watch the Livestream:
reelcanada.ca/RCtv2022Live

B. Use the Interactive Platform:
reelcanada.ca/RCtv2022Forum

C. Livestream & Interactive Platform side-by-side on one screen:
app.meet.ps/RCtv2022Forum

Here are some examples of how to set up:

• Display the livestream (Link A) at the front of the class while students use the platform (Link B) at their seats, either as individuals or as groups.
• If you have one spokesperson in charge of the platform (see section above), display Link C at the front of the class, so all students can see both the platform activities and the livestream at the same time.
• Students at home can take their pick, depending on whether they have access to one device or two.

We need student feedback! In order to keep offering this programming completely free-of-charge, our funders want to know how it went, especially for our young audiences. The feedback information is captured anonymously and shared with our funders.

• Print them out
• Have each student complete a form
• Send them back by scanning and emailing them to [email protected] or sending via regular mail to:

REEL CANADA
720 Bathurst Street, suite 504
Toronto, ON
M5S 2R4

TEACHER FEEDBACK FORM

• Check your inbox for your personalized feedback form
• This one is online, so just complete the form and you’re done

Want to extend the discussion even further? This list of curated bonus films provides additional opportunities for conversation around the themes of racism, oppression, equity, and justice. These works cover a range of subjects, all from Indigenous perspectives. It’s your choice if, when, and how you’d like to incorporate them into the programme.

Note: For a personalized form prefilled with your information, please click on the “Order Films” button in any of our monthly newsletters, or write to [email protected]

Assini

(13 Min)

Seven-year-old Assini and her friends often play Cowboys and Indians. But when Assini discovers that she herself is an "Indian," the game takes a new turn.

Christmas at Moose Factory

(13 Min)

Legendary documentarian Alanis Obomsawin’s debut film is a first-hand look at the experience of children in a residential school during Christmastime.

Four Faces of the Moon

(13 Min)

This intricate stop-motion animation interlaces Canada’s colonial past with writer-director Amanda Strong’s personal family history — and illuminates Cree, Métis, and Anishinaabe reclamation of culture, language, and Nationhood.

Lost Moccasin

(11 Min)

Bradford Bilodeau tells the story of how he reconnected with his birth family after being raised apart from them due to his forced adoption in the Sixties Scoop.

Savage

(6 Min)

This “residential school musical” uses song and dance to depict a little girl’s dehumanizing journey into the residential school system, as well as her mother’s pain.

Sisters and Brothers

(3 Min)

In a pounding critique of Canada’s colonial history, this short film draws parallels between the annihilation of the bison in the 1890s and the devastation inflicted on the Indigenous population by the residential school system. Part of the Souvenir series, it’s one of four films by First Nations filmmakers that remix archival footage to address Indigenous identity and representation, reframing Canadian history through a contemporary lens.

Wakening

(9 Min)

In the near future, the environment has been destroyed and society suffocates under a brutal military occupation. A lone Cree wanderer searches an urban war zone to find the ancient and dangerous Weetigo to help fight against the occupiers.  

Content note: The film is set in a post-conflict war zone, and depicts armed characters.

Wapawekka

(16 Min)

Josh and his father visit their family cabin in Saskatchewan for the last time, confronting the generational differences between their Cree heritage and Josh's urban lifestyle.

When The Children Left

(13 Min)

With no high school in their community, the people of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation must send their children away from home at only 14 years old in order to access educational opportunities.

Zaasaakwe

(5 Min)

A powerful call to action to all Indigenous people to shout for joy and celebrate their identity.