'Inside the Statue Wars' documentary sparks in-depth discussions on statues linked to history of colonization

In a thought provoking new film Inside the Statue Wars (part of The Passionate Eye CBC series, available to watch on CBC Gem), documentarians Steve Gamester, Elizabeth St. Philip and Yuma Dean Hester provide an interesting avenue to discuss the presence and toppling of statues that glorify people linked to causing significant harm in history, to Indigenous communities particularly in Canada.

Interestingly, when Gamester was previously working at the History Channel, there was a rule to never do a film on statues because "they're so boring."

"Apparently they're not boring when they're being toppled," Gamester told Yahoo Canada. "Statues are like street furniture to some people, but to others they were sort of a constant reminder of how only one version of the history of this country was being told, in public spaces in particular."

"There were two sparks for statue toppling. In the States it was the murder of George Floyd and in Canada, it was the discovery of the unmarked graves in Kamloops. I think there was this sense that enough was enough. That these discussions that a lot of Canadians perhaps wanted to avoid about their past could no longer be avoided, if we were going to move forward together as a country, as a society."

Inside the Statue Wars on CBC Gem

For Gamester, as a self-proclaimed "history nerd," he watched the destruction and toppling of statues in the U.S. and Canada with great interest. What particularly struck him was that "Canada was having a reckoning with its past."

Then in 2022, Gamester took particular notice of the statue of Alexander Wood coming down in Toronto, which is when he brought the idea to St. Philip, and they began pitching the film. They brought in a third producer, Hester, who provided that critical Indigenous voice to the project.

"I think we just talked for maybe two and a half hours, just about this whole issue in itself," Hester said. "Knowing that it was a lot more than just about these landmarks and public space, that there were deeper rooted issues."

"That was the huge pull. That was when the desire struck me, like OK I have to be a part of this. I have to have a little stake in this conversation."

St. Philip recalled that much of that initial conversation was about what these symbols meant.

"I think initially, from my perspective, I had seen a lot of these statutes come down on the news or social media, and I had heard a lot of people denounce the statue topplings as vandalism," she said. "But I was always really intrigued and I wanted to know more about the people who are bringing them down. Their reasons for toppling the statues."

"So initially, conversations with Steve and Yuma, I was really interested in kind of getting at that, the motivations. Because it's more than just about statues. These symbols mean a lot to people. People really feel very passionately about them, but their opinions can differ quite strongly, and that's what we found when we spoke to people in doing this documentary.

'Public space is supposed to be for all of us'

With a lot of subject matter to cover in just 45 minutes, the documentarians cleverly introduce their cast of subjects with labels like "The Historian," "The Artist," "The MP," "The Statue Defender," and most interesting, "The Statue Slayer."

Gamester highlighted that there were some specific considerations around who to include in order to have a more "in-depth" discussion, which is often not had in the quick news bites and social media responses they had seen.

"There was a shared interest amongst the three of us to hear from the people who directly participated in these protests, in these actions on statues, because I think the imagery that you saw on the news was always sort of the statute coming down, and a quick sound bit reaction," Gamester said. "There wasn't a real in-depth discussion to hear the motivations, the nuance of the people who participated in these actions."

"We also recognized that everyone sort of has a stake in this. ... Public space is supposed to be for all of us. All of us share this lands right now ... and we saw statues as a real sort of opportunity, maybe a surprising forum, a place for Canadians to have this discussion."

Inside the Statue Wars on CBC Gem

St. Philip stressed that the process was quite challenging to get people to open up for Inside the Statue Wars.

"It took time to gain people's trust," St. Philip said. "Many of the people who we spoke to, they feel that legacy media has not done right by their stories."

"So it took many conversations over many, many months, explaining what we'd love to do, before they opened up. I think all of us are incredibly grateful that they decided to share their stories, because all of us really wanted it to be from their perspective. That's why there's no real narrator, it's really told through the voices of the people we interviewed."

But Hester stressed that its because of the "generosity" of the participants and willingness to share their stories that made the film so effective and robust in its discourse.

"It's a very palpable subject," Hester said. "Just talking about the fact that we're doing this, everybody had something to say, everybody who I talked to was like, 'Oh, well let me tell you what I think.'"

"Talking with people like [Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie, journalist Niigaan James Sinclair], and having them share personal stories and having them share their viewpoints very, very clearly and very straightforwardly, I think is the biggest piece of why ... we were able to delve a lot further into this subject matter than just sort of the binary of social media posts."

'More empathy and understanding about why people might want to tear down statues'

In terms of what the documentarians hope the public takes from the film, Hester wants people to watch it more than once and "bring conversations to the dinner tables."

"That's an important thing that I think any Canadian can do," Hester said.

"There's a strong Indigenous voice within the piece and this is the dialogue that's not reaching everybody. This is the dialogue that I hope, through this documentary, gets to the kitchen tables, to the other people who need to hear this story."

St. Philip added that she hopes individuals with differing opinions watch it together.

"I'd love for people to watch it and at the end have conversations, even arguments, about what they think about what people said in the documentary," she said.

"I don't think people necessarily have to agree with either side, but I'm hoping that there's a little bit more empathy and understanding about why people might want to tear down statues. Especially if you're somebody who started watching the documentary thinking it was just vandalism."