Evelyn Jacob SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

ITH THE conser- vative climate # W surrounding

documentary film-making and The Bays of St. Vincent and The Valour and the Horror debacles still fresh on the minds of Canadians, | imagined Peter von Put-

‘ tkamer would be anxious about finding a broadcaster. After all, the German-born TV

“producer is taking on sensitive, formerly taboo, subject matter: the atrocities suffered by native peo- ples at the hands of church-run, government-sanctioned residential schools, .

When | visited him in his North

_ Vancouver home, however, he seemed surprisingly unperturbed ‘about treading into controversial territory. He says he is more con- cerned with fully exposing one of the ugliest blemishes on the con- science of our nation.

Shot in Vancouver on a low budget, von Puttkamer’s half-hour

‘emotionally charged documen- tary, Beyond the Shadows, in- cludes often shocking tales of | abuse as recounted in interviews

J with rnembers of B.C.’s Cariboo

r

region. — . TV broadcasters may not be breaking down his door, but-it’s

b early days yet. The show has al-

A Cindy Award.

feady won a number of interna- tional honors, including this year's

“Vhaven’t canfronted enough broadcasters yet (CBC has ex- pressed interest in airing Beyond the Shadows for national broad- cast), but ! feel optimistic: because a lot of this is coming out in the open now, © |

“More people in Canada are aware of the injuries done to First Nations, and they want to know the truth ,’ says von Puttkamer, whose award-winning documen-

i tary, The Spirit of the Mask, aired last night an U.TV.

“I's not just people whining. It’s something that we can all learn from.”"

The good-natured, snowy-haired producer, director and sometimes

Cameraman says he was overcome 7 with emotion during filming of the q show. :

“The story of the residential

a school system is sa tragic,” he

# says. ‘We're talking about native

H people who were tied up in chairs and had broomsticks broken over

# their heads. The specific incidents

4 of abuse people describe in the show are horrific.’

R ’“You hear about young girls

4 who were siripped naked and beaten and forced to live in an at- tic with rotting food, about native women who were held down by nuns and sterilized with a coat hanger. This kind of thing went on

i for 150 years in Canada and yet

he government has never apolo- gized to the First Nations. There hasn‘t even been an acknowl- edgement. ~ "A lot.of people say, ‘Well, s couldn’t they just be making it

CRED 2 so ecoseccoene ey

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EWS phete Mike Waxsliold NORTH VANCOUVER producer Peter von Puttkamer’s father ran Paradise Vailey (now the Outdoor School) in Squamish.

up?’ But when you see case after work again and again, case you know it did happen.” One of his earliest documen- Von Puttkarner believes that taries, The Honour of All: The Beyond the Shadows is one of the Story of Alkali Lake (1985), told strongest indictments of the resi- the amazing tale of how this B.C. dential school system and the native community courageously racist beliefs behind it. Many of his transformed itself from a locale native friends felt the CBC with a 100% alcoholism rate to documentary, Where the Spirit one that was 98% sober. tives, soft-pedalled the story of Kecia: Words to Live By (1991), native abuse. one of von Puttkamer’s favorite A graduate of UBC's film and works, pertrays a young HIV- video program, von Puttkamer has _ infected native girl's message of always been drawn to native hope. Like The Story of Alkali culture — his father ran Paradise Lake, Kecia won praise from Valley (now the Outdoor School) native leaders and captured four in Squamish and knew many international awards, including the prominent native leaders — and

that same love is reflected in his See Spirit page 33

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