CausticsYear: 2026
Total run time: 79 minutes
Format: DCP / Digital, 4K, 5.1
Caustics is a feature-length experimental documentary commissioned by COUSIN Collective. Currently in post-production.
Caustics is an experimental documentary exploring nêhiyaw cosmologies, non-linear time, and ecological kinships, weaved together through teachings and stories told by Ken Roan, a ceremonial leader and traditional healer.
The film follows Ken Roan’s grandchildren as they prepare for a Painted Drum ceremony on their family territory while receiving and documenting teachings on the nêwoiyiwak creation story, land-based perceptions of time, and our urgent responsibility to care for the land that we are all intrinsically interconnected with.
As each teaching is shared, poetic and tactile images of land are intertwined with time-lapse sequences of mountainscapes and archival NASA footage, amplifying and uplifting the inherent knowledges rooted within nêwoiyaw ways of being. Caustics offers reflections on the nature of geologic deep time, rhizomatic kinships between all living and nonliving beings, and the paths towards healing intergenerational trauma across family histories and oral archives.
Runtime: 79 minutes
Format: DCP, 5.1
Language: English, nêhiyawewin
Stills from Caustics
Featuring
Ken Roan, Osa Roan, Kendra Roan, Todd Houseman, Kieran Houseman, Kyle Houseman, Howie Miller, Jennifer Houseman, Sally Sakho, Penny Roan, Kenisha Roan, Askiw Roan, Buffalo Roan
Elders
Ken Roan
Penny Roan
Bruce Lee
oskâpewis
Uncle Jim
Director, Camera, Editor
Tyson Houseman
Music, Sound Design
Devon Bate
Production Manager
Kieran Houseman
Location Sound Recording
Kyle Houseman
Additional Camera
Gaëlle Legrand
Kieran Houseman
Commissioned by
COUSIN Collective
Produced by
Tyson Houseman
Newoiyiwak
Producing Consultants
Colin Van Loon
Kerry Sugiyama
Offline Edit Consultant
Jessica Dymond
Colorist Consultant
Jozef Karoly