Dual meaning in residential school documentary

Tessa Desnomie's film "It Had To Be Done" finally came home.
Shot in Lebret, screened in San Francisco, broadcast to thousands of CBC and SCN viewers and recently nominated for an industry award, the documentary was presented in Fort Qu'Appelle before a hometown audience on November 14th.
The documentary screened at the Treaty Four Governance Centre before an audience of 50 people, and was followed by a 20-minute question and answer session with Desnomie, and the two women profiled in the documentary, Anita McLeod and Doris Bellegarde.
The film focuses on McLeod and Bellegarde, both from the Peepeekisis First Nation, who as children attended the Lebret Indian Residential School and then later as adults returned to work and made changes at the school.
Through skillful use of archival photos, paintings, and interviews, Desnomie takes the viewer inside the residential school system of the 1940s. In the film, McLeod and Bellegarde vividly describe how they endured hunger and physical abuse at the hands of the Catholic nuns and priests who at the time administered the school.
Desnomie says she attended the same school in the 90's, but took for granted how well they were fed and treated.
"When you go back and hear the story from Doris' perspective as a student in the 1940s, you'll hear something completely different. They were pretty well starving. They were fed next to nothing," Desnomie said in a phone interview.
In their adult lives, McLeod and Bellegarde became employed by the school and made important changes that improved the way the school fed and treated its students.
The documentary shows how Bellegarde worked as a chef who uncompromisingly insisted on better alimentation for the students. McLeod worked as a child care
professional, helping to remove the strap and other forms of corporal punishment.
"(Both women) made huge strides that perhaps have never been acknowledged," Desnomie said.
The film's title has a double meaning for
Desnomie.
First, its meaning was brought to light during the interviews when Anita McLeod said that she had to return to the school to make changes and proclaimed "it had to be done."
The second meaning of the phrase alludes to Desnomie's film showing some of the history in which the federal government
forced Aboriginal children to attend the residential schools. Telling a part of the residential school history was a way of relating a story that connects the past with the present, she said.
Part of Desnomie's concept for the film came at a time when the federal government was issuing payments to residential school survivors.
As she was researching story ideas for the film, she found herself wondering what the compensation money would mean to her, her parents and her grandparents, since each of those generations experienced the residential school system in such different ways.
The film was recently nominated for a 2009 Showcase Award for Best Cultural Diversity Film with the announcement made by the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association on Nov. 12.
The first film Desnomie wrote and directed was "It's Getting Easier," a story about her
grandmother and the experience itself had a profound impact on her.
"It opened my eyes to the possibilities of story telling," Desnomie said. "I'm very
grateful and lucky that I am (making films) because it's wonderful to be able to tell stories."
Both films have enjoyed success. "It's Getting Easier," was screened at the Smithsonian Institution in New York, while "It Had To Be Done" was screened in March at the Native American Film & Video Festival in San Francisco.