Woodland Cree First Nation featured in film

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Hank Williams First Nation, Directed by Aaron James Sorensen, Starring Gordon Tootoosis, Jimmy Herman and Stacy Da Silva

It may have been an unusual place to premiere a movie-500 kilometres north of Edmonton at Peace River's Cinema 72 on Feb. 4-but it was the most appropriate, said Aaron James Sorensen, the writer/director/producer of Hank Williams First Nation.

And the locals agreed by attending in droves the opening night of a movie in which the beautiful Peace Country looms large and the Native people there even larger.

Sorensen's first cinematic endeavor stars Gordon Tootoosis as Adelard Fox, a successful businessman who, with his wife, played by Edna Rain, is raising two teenaged grandchildren Sarah (Stacy Da Silva) and Jacob (Colin VanLoon). Jimmy Herman plays Adelard's older brother Martin who gets it into his head that Hank Williams Sr., like Elvis, may not be as dead as the world has been led to believe.

Uncle Martin has a notion to travel to Nashville to see for himself senior's grave. Adelard pulls Jacob from school to accompany his impetuous and wonderfully odd uncle on the journey, making a deal with the principal that if Jacob keeps a journal and writes letters to the community about the trip, he can maintain his grades.

Left behind is Jacob's sister Sarah, who goes on her own journey of self-discovery, while never wandering outside the boundaries of the reserve.

The movie was shot last March in and around Peace River, with the Woodland Cree First Nation opening up the community to the film-maker. Needless to say, the local reaction to the movie was enthusiastic. Friends and family gave the film an unqualified thumbs up. And this reviewer agrees. Hank Williams First Nation is funny and familiar, an authentic and affectionate reflection of a Cree community in Alberta.

But how will it play in Peoria?

While there are some gaps in plot that audience members will be required to leap from time to time, there is much to recommend this film. An impressive opening sequence introduces the main characters laying the groundwork for the people the audience is about to meet.

Uncle Martin sits at a kitchen table reading a supermarket tabloid and eating pickled eggs right out of the industrial-size jar. Grandmother kneeds gooey dough for fry-bread. Adelard's defective car-starter forces him out of his warm home in his long-johns to start an expensive looking pick-up. Two teenagers sleep peacefully, unaware they will soon have their eyes fully opened by the experiences of the days to come.

Throughout the film, Sorensen deftly demonstrates the gentle, self-effacing humor of the Cree people. Much of the comedy comes over the airwaves from fictional radio personality Old Man On The Mountain. The character is based on the real-life Native radio personality Old Man From The Mountain, Norman Quinney, now retired from CFWE, the Native Perspective. Sorensen's homage will surely make anyone who knew Quinney's radio style smile with appreciation.

And without turning the film into a treatise on the social problems prevalent on reserve today, the film subtly reminds the audience that despite all the good found in Native communities, there is occasional heartache.

Possibly problematic for a mainstream audience though is a long scene shot completely in Cree. Raymond Carafelle, a member of Peavine Metis Settlement, plays a chief looking to be re-elected. He's come to visit Adelard to convince him to finance the making of his re-election sign. The chief loves chicken wings and while sucking the meat off a plateful of them and the juice off his fingers, he makes his pitch.

It was obvious from the Cree-speakers in the audience that Chief Chicken-Wings was also telling a few very good jokes, but the whole sequence was lost on those who did not understand the language. The director promises that sub-titles will be added to the DVD version, but during the theatrical run, Cree-speakers will have thesefew minutes in the film to themselves.

Hank Williams First Nation is expected to run in a variety of locations in northern Alberta, starting with Grande Prairie on Feb. 25. The director says it will depend on audience attendance whether it will have a life beyond that.