IN THE BEGINNING WAS WATER AND SKY | What Really Happened at Indian Boarding Schools? A Short Film

Two Indigenous children try to return to a home taken by colonization.

IN THE BEGINNING WAS WATER AND SKY is directed by Ryan Ward and produced by Mackenzie Leigh with Memory Pill http://www.memorypillfilms.com in collaboration with PBS and the National Film Board of Canada.

IN THE BEGINNING WAS WATER AND SKY is a haunting fairytale historical drama that weaves two parallel timelines: a Native American Girl in the 1700s who follows a wolf into the woods and returns to find her village changed forever, and a Native American Boy in the 1960s who escapes a residential school to try find his way back home.

A single bullet and a wolf link their journeys across centuries.

Told in a poetic, cinematic style with minimal dialogue and striking visuals, this short film explores themes of colonial trauma, Indigenous resistance, and intergenerational healing.

From the 1860s to the 1970s, over 320,000 Native American children in Canada and the United States were forcibly removed from their families and placed into government- and church-run Indian Boarding Schools. These institutions sought to erase Indigenous identity through forced assimilation, prohibiting Indigenous languages, severing cultural ties, and subjecting children to physical and emotional abuse. Many children died or disappeared while trying to return home.

In the U.S., the Indian Education Act of 1972 marked a shift toward greater Tribal control. In Canada, the last federally funded residential school closed in 1996, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission later documented the widespread harm and intergenerational trauma inflicted by these institutions. Today, Native communities work to preserve Indigenous language, reclaim culture, and confront the silences left behind.

WRITER / DIRECTOR | Ryan Ward   / r.yanwar.d  
PRODUCER | Mackenzie Leigh   / mackenzie.lg  
DP | Michael LeBlanc   / michaelsonofpaul  
PRODUCTION COMPANY | Memory Pill Films   / memorypillfilms  
STARRING | Norma-Sue Hill   / normasue23   Shohnáhose Davin Bomberry   / davin.bomberry   Jenna Clause   / jennaclause  
COMPOSER | David Bertok   / davidbertokmusic  

RUNTIME | 14 mins
COUNTRY | Canada / USA
DISTRIBUTOR | PBS, National Film Board of Canada, ShortsTV, SofyTV
  / memorypillfilms  
  / memorypillfilms  
  / memorypillfilms