Musqueam cousins Faith Sparrow-Crawford and Scarlett Sparrow-Felix bring Take Care to VIFF
A scene from Take Care, the Canadian short from Musqueam filmmakers Faith Sparrow-Crawford and Scarlett Sparrow-Felix, which has its world premiere at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Photo credit: VIFF
In October 2024, while her first short as a director, Uncommon Ground, was screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Musqueam filmmaker Faith Sparrow-Crawford was already talking about another film she was developing with her cousin, Scarlett Sparrow-Felix. The idea had come from their own family.
Called Take Care, the project would follow a Coast Salish family through the four days after the death of its matriarch, drawing on what Sparrow-Crawford described as “the experiences we had when our family lost our grandmother.” Two years later, the completed film is headed to VIFF for its world premiere, with Sparrow-Crawford and Sparrow-Felix directing together.
The 20-minute Canadian drama follows 15-year-old Hope after her grandmother dies. As Hope tries to find her place within the cultural protocols surrounding the death, her mother and uncle clash over the burial and the family moves through its first days without its matriarch.
Sparrow-Crawford discussed the origins of the film before production began. In an October 2024 interview with Filmable, she said the four days between a death and funeral hold particular importance in her Coast Salish experience, with traditions providing structure during mourning while community members help the family prepare for the funeral. She and Sparrow-Felix were drawing from their own experience after their grandmother died as they developed Hope’s family and the events surrounding the loss.
A member of the Musqueam Indian Band, Sparrow-Crawford graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2017 after studying First Nations and Indigenous Studies with a focus on Indigenous new media. First Peoples’ Cultural Council says she later worked for Musqueam on self-government, including helping to draft a constitution grounded in Musqueam traditions and protocols. She co-founded Salish Locations Inc. in 2019 and later became a co-founder of Host Consulting, which works with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh artists and communities on public-art projects.
Her first directing experience came with Uncommon Ground, a science-fiction short she co-wrote with her father, Bruce Crawford. Set in the Coast Salish region 150 years in the future, the film grew from stories and histories Sparrow-Crawford had heard from her family and community. Leenah Robinson played Tawni in the short; she appears again in Take Care, while Bruce Crawford is also part of the new film’s cast.
Sparrow-Felix is also Musqueam and was raised on Musqueam in Vancouver. She studied Motion Picture Arts at Capilano University after developing an interest in film and television in high school, and VIFF says she worked on independently funded shorts around the Lower Mainland while completing her degree. Capilano University’s 2026 convocation program lists her among that year’s Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts graduates.
The cousins had worked on at least one project together before Take Care. Sparrow-Felix handled behind-the-scenes video for a 2024 instalment of Arc’teryx’s Walk Gently, directed by Sparrow-Crawford and James Kim and developed with participants from the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh communities.
By April 2025, Take Care was among the projects receiving production support through the Indigenous Screen Office. ISO’s 2024-25 Production Program supported 28 Indigenous creative teams across nine feature films, five shorts and 14 television series, with nine of the funded productions based in British Columbia. Its announcement listed Dallas Soonias, Sparrow-Crawford, Salia Joseph and Mik Narciso as key creatives on Take Care.
The finished film credits Sparrow-Crawford as screenwriter, while she and Sparrow-Felix share directing and executive-producing credits. Johnna Sparrow-Crawford is also an executive producer, with Mik Narciso, Dallas Soonias and Willian Leung producing through Halo Halo Productions and Soonias Enterprises. Ben Dawson is cinematographer, Nathan Young edited the film, Victor Razi handled production design and Justin Delorme composed the music.
The cast includes Robinson, Jennifer Podemski, Michael Greyeyes, Renae Morriseau, Michael Podemski-Bedard and Bruce Crawford. VIFF’s current listing does not identify which actors play Hope, her mother, her uncle or the film’s other family members.
Podemski’s involvement follows an earlier connection in Sparrow-Crawford’s development as a filmmaker. During the 2024 interview about Uncommon Ground, Sparrow-Crawford named Podemski among the Indigenous filmmakers whose work she admired. At the time, Take Care was still a project she and Sparrow-Felix were developing.
The film arrives at VIFF with Musqueam filmmakers in its central writing, directing and executive-producing roles. Its development was also supported by the Indigenous Screen Office, an independent national advocacy and funding organization serving First Nations, Inuit and Métis screen creators in Canada.
Sparrow-Crawford has spoken specifically about making work as a xʷməθkʷəy̓əm filmmaker in Vancouver. Discussing Uncommon Ground in 2024, she talked about being able to share stories within her own territory and said she hoped to see future generations of Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh creatives doing the same.
Sparrow-Felix has described filmmaking as the artistic form through which she wants to express herself and bring Indigenous perspectives to the screen. In a New Relationship Trust Foundation profile published while she was studying at Capilano, she wrote about being born and raised on Musqueam and about wanting audiences to see perspectives grounded in the people and place she comes from.
Take Care will screen as part of VIFF’s Short Forum 4: Immanence: A Life at International Village 8 in Vancouver on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5. VIFF has included the film in both its BC Spotlight and Indigenous Cinema programming.
The film reaches its world premiere two years after Sparrow-Crawford first described the project publicly. At that point, she and Sparrow-Felix were still working out how to turn their family’s experience after their grandmother’s death into a story about Hope and the four days surrounding the loss. On Oct. 4, that story reaches the screen at VIFF.
