Watch the First Trailer for Saints and Warriors

Get your first look at the documentary Saints and Warriors ahead of its world premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Directed by Patrick Shannon, Saints and Warriors takes audiences to Prince Rupert, British Columbia where athletes from various Indigenous communities converge for the All Native Basketball Championship. Shannon focuses on members of defending champions the Skidegate Saints as they strive to keep their title. But the aging team faces a challenge that reflects a larger tension: some of the players from remote communities are now playing for “collector” all-star teams after moving to bigger cities like Vancouver. The homecoming proves bittersweet as friends and former neighbours become rivals.

Saints and Warriors also considers the bigger picture as it explores basketball as an act of resilience on the unceded land. Shannon looks at the players’ fight to reclaim their territory after it was stole during the Indian Act of 1876, and further violated by development and resource extraction with episodes like the 1985 stand-off between the Haida Nation and loggers on Lyell Island setting the backdrop for the story. The film shows how basketball is more than just a game: it’s a means for survival.

Saints and Warriors is produced by Michael Tanko Gand, with executive producers Desmond Collinson, Gaagwiis Jason Alsop, Vinay Virmani, Patrick Shannon, Connor Ritchie and co-executive producer Hayley Morin. Saints and Warriors will be distributed by Game Theory Films in Canada.

The film is a Grand Scheme and InnoNative production, and co-venture with First Take Entertainment and Uninterrupted Canada, produced in association with Bell Media’s Crave, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, Creative BC, CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund and Rogers Group of Funds.  It premieres next month at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Watch the trailer for Saints and Warriors below: