Cree Filmmaker Jules Koostachin Explores Domestic Abuse Survival in ‘Broken Angel’

Cree filmmaker Jules Arita Koostachin’s latest film, Broken Angel, was a long time in the making.

The 50-year-old Vancouver-based filmmaker — who wrote and directed and has a role in the film — shot Broken Angel in the fall of 2021 over a chaotic, 12-day stretch in Langley B.C., amidst flooding and falling trees. But the script’s journey to production took 15 years. 

“I was selling it, but everybody was like, ‘No, nobody wants to see this kind of story, it’s too negative,’” Koostachin, a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario, says of the script from 2006. “Finally, I just said, ‘I need to make this frigging film!’

“I can’t believe we did in 12 days, but, you know, that was a lot of prep. That was a lot of work. That was a lot of rewrites.”

The film tells the story of Angel (Sera Lys McArthur), who, along with her daughter Tanis (Brooklyn Letexier Hart), flees her abusive settler husband in the middle of the night for the protection of a women’s shelter on a reservation. Once there, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she reconnects with her past, family and Cree community. 

Koostachin, who will be in attendance at the film’s world première at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox on Oct. 20, says she comes from a long line of storytellers.

Growing up in Moosonee, Ont., where she was raised by her grandparents in a home without electricity, the stories told by her grandmother and aunts were a steady source of entertainment. 

“They were so animated and all the aunties and everybody would come over and it [felt] like watching a theatre piece,” she says. “That was a huge part of my childhood.”

Koostachin channels those memories into her turn as Dorothy, Angel’s aunt, in the film alongside her real-life son, Asivak Koostachin, who plays Joshua, Angel’s ex.

“I wanted to honour all the aunties out there,” she says of her role. “She’s [a] gentle spirit, but also very wise.”

 

Later in her childhood, while living with her mother in Ottawa, Koostachin was introduced to television, which she says “opened a whole other realm” and provided her with the creative outlet to put her own spin on the Cree storytelling tradition.

Women on the big and small screens had a significant impact on her passion for cinema, from her obsession with Alex, Jennifer Beals’ female lead character in Flashdance, to seeing Indigenous singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie on an episode of Sesame Street. 

“I think that was the first time I ever saw a Native person on screen,” she recalls of Sainte-Marie. “That was really impactful.”

“I feel like it does have the power to kind of change perspective and also inspire,” she adds of her medium. “That’s why I love film.”

 

Meanwhile, the award-winning filmmaker says Indigenous film can go a long way in contributing to the reconciliation process.

“It’s a really interesting platform,” she explains. “We’re able to share Indigenous stories and narratives and change the mainstream narrative of Indigeneity.”

“I feel like this story is universal,” she adds. “It creates connection regardless of race or where you come from.”

Telling those stories hasn’t always been easy for Indigenous filmmakers, but Koostachin, who started her career in the ’80s, says she’s seen a significant increase in opportunities in recent years. 

“There’s been a shift across all sectors it seems, where people are shedding light in terms of representation and having our voices heard,” she says. “I feel like with film in particular, there’s been a definite shift.”

“As long as those opportunities remain, I feel like we can continue doing the work that we’re doing,” Koostachin adds. “All we want to do is share our stories. All we want to do is see ourselves on the screen.”

 

A Warrior’s Story

 

Koostachin has always loved film, but the times in her life where she’s stepped away from the industry have, ironically, shaped her unique storytelling abilities. Most recently, she put a pause on her creative passion to earn her PhD from the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. 

And while she admits the academic undertaking had its impact on the way she approached Broken Angel, the script itself was inspired by her experience working in social services, a chapter that saw her take on the role of director, and then acting CEO of an emergency shelter for Indigenous women, located in Toronto.

“I carry this really in depth awareness,” she explains of her experience at the shelter. “I feel like that was my kind of a catalyst, or my way to share a little bit of my experience through these characters.”

 

But she says she also connects personally with the characters in the film. Growing up, her experience of poverty often made her feel trapped. And like the character of Tanis, her relationship with her own mother, a residential school survivor who makes a cameo in the film, was strained by the impact of trauma. 

“Tanis is my little teenage wonder woman,” she says of Angel’s daughter, who pushes her mother to stand up for herself early in the film. “This is the kid that I wish I was. When you come from adversity, we kind of wish we were stronger. That’s Tanis. I was like, ‘I want this kid to be a little fighter all the way.’”

Meanwhile, Tanis’ use of the word “warrior” to describe herself and her mother in the film stems from Koostachi’s admiration for her own mother, who she calls a residential school warrior. 

“She was taken away at such a young age, so she is a survivor in that context. She had no power over the situation” she explains. “But when I think of my mom now, she’s definitely a warrior in terms of everything that she’s endured.

“When you see someone go through so much hardship, you have to honour what it takes for them to wake up every single day and live that day. I feel like she does come through in everything that I do. She’s always there.”

Broken Angel will also screen at the Whistler Film Festival on Dec. 4 and is available for virtual screening in Ontario from Oct. 24 – 30 through imagineNATIVE.

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