Indigenous Rights / Docuseries

Turning Points

Eight short films about alcohol use, addiction, and healing in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. This project uses an approach we call empowerment journalism to leave key editorial, directorial, and production decisions in the hands of the storytellers themselves.

First screened at a community event in Yellowknife, and then aired in partnership with PBS NewsHour. Winner of a national Edward R. Murrow Award in the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Indigenous Rights / doc

Catherine

“I have clarity. Being on the land, that’s what it does. It brings out the truth in who you are and that’s the most healing thing.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Donald

“Nobody ever asked me what happened to me. They always want to know what a bad guy I was.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Eric

“I still have trauma in my life, I still have that you know, ‘why did my mother throw me away?’, but today I’m doing so much better.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Devin

“It’s so easy up here to go down the rabbit hole… I feel like there’s a stigma around sobriety and recovery.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Louise

“I lost my language, my culture. I really lost myself.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Ernest

“There was too many emotions, too many feelings that I didn’t know how to experience. I just ended up starting drinking again, because I didn’t know how to handle it.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

William

“The turning point for me was to stop the cycle of abusing myself with alcohol, so I could give my son a good future.”

Indigenous Rights / doc

Muriel

“Through my story there is a lot of healing. And I’m so happy about that. People listen. People have ears now. People have eyes now.”