CFUV @ VFF: Review of ‘My Legacy’

When I requested a viewing for Helen-Haig Brown’s My Legacy, I expected to find it a compelling artwork. I did not expect to find any personal connection to it. I found both. Haig-Brown has created a film that addresses large topics of residential school legacies, trust, depression and love, while at the same time taking an acutely intimate look at her own family’s workings and her individual weaknesses — a daring move that I feel not many would be willing to take, let alone share so widely. In a few words, it is beautifully and heartbreakingly honest.

In this documentary, Haig-Brown weaves the long history of injustices done to North America’s First Peoples with familial legacies of depression and suppressed emotion. So often, we hear about the experiences faced in residential schools without talking about the long-lasting trauma those who survived them are left to carry. Haig-Brown confronts this reality head-on in My Legacy through dialogue with her mother, who endured life in a residential school. The film features discussion about the impact residential schools not only had on their students, but on the parents and children of those students. Haig-Brown’s courageousness in addressing the topic and her family’s willingness to talk about their experiences and closely-protected emotions allows the viewer in on their search for mutual healing.

My own family has had a very different story, but Haig-Brown’s depiction of the way traits and struggles are passed down through generations made an immediate connection with me. It is a story so human it feels familiar even though I’ve never met her. Her family is so many of our families.

At once both deeply personal and universal, My Legacy is a poignant look at the coping methods we develop to protect ourselves from our pain. It is also a strong example of how anger can be present without being overshadowed by intense caring and love.

You can view My Legacy tonight at 6pm at The Vic Theatre.

— Linda Sjostrom