This documentary was good but IMO could've been so much better. It's really only 50% about John Ware, and the other 50% is about the maker's family, which is fine, but that makes the title a misnomer.
I didn't really feel like I learned a lot about John Ware and his family since they were inserted into a series of songs and reflections about the maker's family. Also, the title - using the word reclaimed - implies somehow that the old story of John Ware based on racist tropes and outdated narratives about Canada not having racism etc., would be replaced with a new narrative, something that would show what is being reclaimed and how. Instead, the old is torn down but nothing new is put up, so at the end I felt left with the question "OK, so John Ware wasn't that, so what was he?" There are only hints and glimpses provided but no "real", reclaimed John Ware at the end. I think this should've been separated into two documentaries, one about John Ware and one about the maker's family and their experiences. I see what she was going for in trying to use her family for context and connecting it to Ware and the larger Black experience in the prairies, but in the end, when it was mixed with all the random songs, actors reading from old historical records, and other miscellany, it just didn't work for me. When you use a person's name in the title it suggests a full biography about the person, and, to repeat, this is only partly about the person whose name is the title of the film. I applaud the effort but think it could've been thought out more.
