Now Streaming: The Nest Explores Layers of History Housed Within a Home

How many histories intersect within the space between four walls? Filmmaker Julietta Singh peels back layers of history in The Nest, her documentary directed with Chase Joynt, now streaming at NFB.ca. The film, which premiered at Hot Docs last year, sees Singh take a closer look at the old cavernous house she grew up in as her mother gets ready to depart the Victorian mansion. She finally confronts the ghosts that live within the manor's walls.

Singh realises that they don't necessarily haunt the place, but they inform the present with histories that intersect ongoing fights for representation and equity. The film's intersectional excavation of histories explores how the house was built by Métis feminist Annie Bannatyne, who whipped a white cartoonist in public. The house, dubbed "the nest" for being home to so many histories, also served as a boarding school for Deaf students.

"In terms of the historical scenes that we shot, there was something really powerful about refusing scripting," explains Singh. "We didn't write any dialogue, and any dialogue that occurs on screen in those historical moments is entirely improvised by the actors. In the cases of the Japanese and Deaf histories, to this day we have very little idea what they're saying, so we didn't translate those, either. That's part of the ethics and ethos of letting communities claim their own histories."

The Nest is now streaming free at NFB.ca.