This virtual reality series invites you to take on the role of William, a nine-year-old Indigenous boy who is taken from his family and placed in an Indian residential school against his will.
For one revealing moment, you will be this child; you will be transported back in time and witness the realities many Indigenous children faced in residential schools.
Through fiction, you will see reality.
WILLIAM puts technology and cinema at the service of education, truth, and reconciliation.
WILLIAM is a virtual reality (VR) series that sheds light on a part of Canadian history that was long silenced and deliberately ignored.
: For one revealing moment, you will be this child; you will be transported back in time and witness the realities many Indigenous children faced in residential schools.
According to the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015), the residential school system was the primary vehicle for a policy of assimilation that sought to destroy their cultures, identities and histories.
The six episodes of WILLIAM allow the user to live this dark chapter of Canadian history in the first person.
What was the Canadian Indian residential school system ?
For a truly immersive experience, we recommend that you use virtual reality gear to watch the series. It will allow you to enter an interactive 3D universe and live the story in the first person.
Want to be advised when William will be released?Young William peacefully lives with his family on their ancestral land.
Government agents show up to take William away to residential school.
Members of the clergy put William and the other new students through the harsh arrival routine.
A glimpse of what happens at night in the boys dormitory.
A stringent nun teaches English to William and his classmates.
After years away at residential school, William is finally back home.