Client work · 2026
Rebuilding the Circle
A film for Kackaamin Family Development Centre about a program working to end cycles of intergenerational sexual violence rooted in the residential school system.
Kackaamin Family Development Centre, an Indigenous family healing centre near Port Alberni, started a program to stop cycles of intergenerational sexual violence rooted in the residential school system. The program works with people who have been harmed. It also works with people who have caused harm, on the belief that rebuilding Indigenous ways of relating means bringing men back into the circle.
Rebuilding the Circle hears from program participants and facilitators, Indigenous leaders from the area, and trauma experts Gabor Maté and Jane Middleton-Moz. It was made in close partnership with Kackaamin staff, with care for a subject that is hard to talk about.
The client credits the film with helping secure funding for the program to continue. Benjamin Hazel co-directed the film with Tana Thomas, who trained in filmmaking through the project and now collaborates with the studio.
What it did
Helped secure continued funding for the program. Features Gabor Maté and Jane Middleton-Moz. Co-directed with Tana Thomas, who trained through the project and is now a studio collaborator.
- Made for
- Kackaamin Family Development Centre
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- Port Alberni area, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
- Our role
- Direction, production, cinematography and editing, in partnership with Kackaamin staff. Co-directed with Tana Thomas, who trained in filmmaking through the project
- Running time
- 11 min
- intergenerational trauma
- residential schools
- healing
- sexual violence prevention
- Indigenous wellness
- Port Alberni
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