Blue Ant Media’s U.K. distribution arm has acquired the international licensing rights to the documentary Spirit to Soar, inspired by Anishinaabe journalist Tanya Talaga’s award-winning non-fiction book.

Produced by Talaga’s Makwa Creative in association with Toronto’s Antica Productions, Spirit to Soar is a 60-minute documentary that examines the systemic racism toward Indigenous peoples living in Thunder Bay, ON. It is co-directed by Talaga and Anishinaabe filmmaker Michelle Derosier.

The doc is a continuation of her work in the non-fiction book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, published by House of Anansi Press, which highlights the uninvestigated deaths of seven Indigenous high school students between 2000 and 2011. It won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize and the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

Spirit to Soar had its world premiere at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival this year and will be released on CBC and CBC Gem this fall. Blue Ant International will handle worldwide distribution, including for French-speaking Canada.

Makwa Creative has also established the Mashkawi-manidoo bimaadiziwin: Spirit to Soar Fund with national charity Makeway, which will support local Indigenous youth in and around Thunder Bay through connecting them with their Elders, language and traditions.

“This documentary sheds light on a story that is based in Canada, but that has universal significance, as audiences around the globe reckon with systemic racism and cultural inequity,” said Solange Attwood, EVP, Blue Ant International, in a statement. “Sharing Tanya’s personal journey as she explores the stories of the Seven Fallen Feathers from Thunder Bay adds to an incredibly crucial movement for reconciliation and change, especially given the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves of Indigenous children found at residential schools.”