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The Grizzlies (2018): Stick Together

TW: Mentions of suicide, violence, genocide. Film rated R.


SPOILER WARNING


“When you work together, and connect as a team… That is when you will truly be great.”


In a place where isolation and hardship define everyday life, what if a simple sport could spark hope in the lives of Indigenous youth? Set in the remote community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut, which possessed the highest suicide rate in Canada for several years (MacEachern, 2013), The Grizzlies (2018)  tells the true story of a community facing a devastating youth suicide crisis — and how teamwork and solidarity can change everything.


Director Miranda de Pencier opens the film with Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer), a Southern Canadian teacher sent north to fulfill his community service hours, and who is largely ignorant of the region’s realities. This disconnect is made painfully clear in the beginning of the movie, when he fails to recognize the emotional distress expressed by one of his students, Roger (Fred Bailey), who is quietly struggling with suicidal thoughts over his girlfriend, Spring (Anna Lambe). While the audience sees Roger’s struggle, Russ doesn’t — a failure that turns devastating when Roger takes his own life. It’s a jarring introduction to the film’s central tension: these youth feel invisible, and the need for meaningful connection is urgent.


Sport as a Catalyst for Connection



That connection arrives through an unlikely vessel: lacrosse. When Russ proposes starting a school team, he’s met with skepticism and indifference from his students, particularly from Adam (Ricky Marty-Pahtaykan), a traditional hunter who refuses to deviate from tradition, and  Zach (Paul Nutarariaq), a combative youth with a distrust for authority; both whose leadership the other students follow. Their eventual participation acts as a catalyst, shifting the group of students from indifferent teenagers, to an inspired team. One by one, all of them find something in the sport they hadn’t expected. The team evolves into a source of belonging and eventually, the sport becomes secondary to the community it builds.


However, The Grizzlies doesn’t let their inspiration and camaraderie go uncontested, with each student undergoing a personal struggle beyond the sport. Adam struggles against his grandparents’ deep distrust of the education system. Zach shoulders the burden of providing for an unstable home. Kyle (Booboo Stewart) endures domestic violence from his residential school survivor father, while Miranda (Emerald MacDonald) navigates suffocating family pressure, culminating in a particularly heartbreaking scene where her sister berates and burns her books. Each storyline is distinct, yet the thread running through all of them is the same: intergenerational trauma, and the systems that perpetuate it.


The film, however, is careful to not to treat these struggles as isolated personal failures. Indigenous Canadians are vastly overrepresented in Canada’s child welfare system, they face the highest unemployment rates in the country, and they make up over 30% of the prison population despite being just 5% of Canadians (Reconciliation Education, 2023). These are not coincidences — they are the consequences of deliberate, systemic harm. The Grizzlies understands this, and it shows.


The Legacy of Residential Schools


The most striking example of that systemic harm is embodied in Kyle’s father, Harry, a residential school survivor whose unresolved trauma surfaces as violence and alcoholism. His story is painful, and while the film does not excuse it, it contextualizes it. Children who grew up in residential schools were denied stability, belonging, and healthy models of care. As adults, many carried that dysfunction into their own families (Rice, n.d.). Statistics Canada (2017) found that Indigenous people with residential school exposure in their family history, reported significantly higher rates of childhood abuse, neglect, and household instability — with 40% of Indigenous people self-reporting physical or sexual abuse in childhood.


It is this enduring, intergenerational impact that makes it clear why acknowledgment of such systemic injustices alone is insufficient. Reconciliation, the film reminds us, requires more than recognition, it demands systematic change. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission outlined 94 Calls to Action urging governments and institutions to actively support Indigenous-led healing (NCTR, n.d.). Education is central to that work — ensuring that all Canadians understand this history, and that policy changes permanently dismantle the structures still causing harm today (Reconciliation Education, 2023).


Resilience and Redefining Success


The Grizzlies extends this need for change to domains outside of policy, particularly that of the individual. “What lies behind us is tiny compared to what lies within us.” This was my favourite line in the film — and it captures everything The Grizzlies is really about. Despite the weight of grief, hardship, and loss (most notably, the heartbreaking suicide of Zach, one of the team’s players), the team raises enough money to travel to Toronto for a national tournament. Despite facing the top team in Ontario, they are reminded of the journey they faced in a bittersweet flashback of the team playing with Zach, empowering them to score a goal. However, despite scoring a goal, ultimately The Grizzlies didn't win, a fact which further clarifies the film's true message: that true victory lay not in the sport, but rather in the hardships they overcame, and the perseverance they demonstrated.


While the Grizzlies does not offer the most flattering portrayal of Indigenous life, it does offer an honest one, grounded in true stories and lived experiences. The end credits drive this home with a “Where Are They Now” segment following the real members of the Kugluktuk Grizzlies. Each member’s story speaks to how lacrosse became a foundation for identity, activism, and community. This is a film worth watching — not simply for the sport, but for the story and the experiences it highlights. These serve as reminders that regardless of what we’ve endured, we are always more than what lies behind us.


Resources


If you or someone you know is struggling, please consider reaching out for support, or accessing available resources such as these:


  • Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419 (Toll-free)

  • First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line : 1-855-242-3310

  • Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS), locations include: Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia and New Brunswick

  • 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline


Additional resources exist in our "Resources" page


Works Cited



Writer: Nicholas Ogaro

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