A film that took nine years to make, Endless Cookie, an animation documentary hybrid, depicts lifetimes. There are side stories here, capturing a justice system that has a racist tendencies against Indigenous people. Those tendencies also omit First Nations in conversations about getting their land back. It’s also about two brothers, Pete and Seth Scriver. One Cree and the other one settler, fifteen years apart. Both create a film where the latter asks the former for stories about living in Shamattawa and Toronto. Pete tells stories about processing chickens in an apartment but everybody gets their turn to tell stories.

Literally about everything, it goes without saying that the animation in here is full of nuanced details, said details pointing to its themes, like the exasperation on characters who are part of the system. Of course, said details spell out themes, like the word ‘racist’ decorating a court trapping the Indigenous. Other details, thankfully, are delightfully odd, like a box of chicken fingers inadvertently giving viewers the finger. A trip to the store is a gateway for Seth to relearn things and words from Peter. And because men are boys, a store trip has Peter teaching Seth things like the Cree word for fart.

In depicting Seth’s trips to Shamattawa and Peter’s memories of Toronto, Endless Cookie depicts Peter’s lively world. A former punk rocker in Toronto, Peter is now a father, his kids loving waving at him. Again, it has its delightful side stories, like a woman who has a lot of sled dogs. The Toronto scenes are equally interesting here, showing that yes, Indigenous people can be urban as well. Said Toronto scenes have a certain relatable quality to them but that’s probably my own biases talking. There’s also a specificity in all aspects of the story here, especially during Peter’s story about chickens.

Endless Cookie has a lot of jokes that would, in good ways, kill in a theatrical setting, and has a lot of memorable side characters like coffee mugs that are groggy or sexy. There’s both an intelligence and a winsome silliness to its meta-narrative approach, as stories delightfully germinate and multiply. Other side plot include Seth’s dealing with what is obviously a parody of the National Film Board. The board questions him about a story involving the Victorian era which goes way into the weeds. But sometimes, going into the weeds feels like a fun ride, giving viewers a deep and nuanced world.

Endless Cookie is available to watch in select Canadian theatres.