Actress busy in own backyard

Page 13

Tina Keeper may appear to be keeping a low profile ever since North of 60 was cancelled last year, but nothing could be further than the truth.

Besides staying very active in the Winnipeg theatre scene, Keeper will soon be seen starring in the new television film In the Blue Ground: A North of 60 Movie. But the 36-year-old actor isn't limiting herself to just acting roles these days. Soon she'll be making her directorial debut in the world of documentary film-making. She has two documentaries in mind, one on residential schools, and a second film chronicling the journey of women from India and Canada who participated in an interfaith exchange program. Also in the works is co-directing a short dramatic film with a friend of hers.

"I have a double major in theatre and history, and for me, on a personal level, I feel a sense of empowerment by knowing what happened to Native people in Canada. I have a stronger passion in that than any mainstream acting role," she said. "I'm now at a time in my life where I want to give something back to my community. I've been so fortunate and I've had so many opportunities, that now, more so than ever before, I'd rather create work for the next generation of actors." One of those opportunities is playing the lead role in the highly successful television series North of 60. The show lasted six seasons and established the actor as a bonafide star, at least in the Native community. The show continues to be watched in more than 60 countries, where the series is especially popular in the Middle East and South America.

Asked whether she thinks the show had naturally run its course when it got cancelled, Keeper feels the series could have continued on. She says many of the characters were never fully developed, and there was room for them to take on lives of their own - in the sense of being able to carry the show. But after five years of shuffling her family back and forth every six months between Calgary (where the series was shot) and her home in Winnipeg, she admits she was ready for a break.

"For me personally, I was ready," she said laughing. "One of the things I think about regarding North of 60 are the chances they took in casting were unbelievable. Casting people who had never done film work before and that was true for not only the young people, but also with us adults.

"They had a treasure chest of actors. Tim Webber, Lubomir Mykytiuk and Tina Louise Bomberry could be lead actors in a heartbeat."

Keeper said the show, even though it was one of the most widely watched television series - an estimated 1.4 million viewers tuned into Lynx River every week - failed to receive support from within the industry. Perceived as a show with a "western Canadian feel" and "a fluke," North of 60 was blatantly overlooked in the Gemini Awards, as well as in garnering national press coverage.

"The thing that always got to me was that we were the Number 1 prime time drama for several years. We beat out Seinfeld and the Simpsons in the ratings, but we never once made a TV Guide cover. We never got positive media attention, outside of our own community." Without any bitterness in Keeper's voice, she states "it was racism, pure and simple - the kind that people don't even recognize. It's that insidious." And adds, "I also felt that the media didn't even recognize us as being real actors."

With media scrutiny always being more centred, if not entirely, on the activities of the Native cast members, Keeper says mainstream press coverage usually fell into two categories: overtly negative or intrusive (sensationalizing actors' personal lives).

"I remember Lonesome Dove was shooting nearby and you'd hear about stuff that would happen on set, and the next day there would be a little blurb about it in the newspaper. Certainly if anything happened to one of the Indians on North of 60, it made headlines."

Keeper says all the media attention took its toll not only on her personally, but also on others in thecast, especially the younger members. The actor said she's now cautious when talking to the press and guards the privacy of her family tenaciously.

"I think the biggest challenge for the younger people on the show was trying to balance their personal life with that of being a recognized personality. They were very young, making a lot of money. We weren't in Toronto or Los Angeles, we were in Calgary, so you're not in a centre where there is a lot of other people like you around. Trying to be a normal teenager when you're dealing with being a celebrity, being alone in that was really tough on them.

"For me personally, I had to learn how to handle it and that meant having other interests besides acting. Also being grounded in my community and having the support of my family really helped me deal with it. I had a reality check. But it's something you're not prepared for, so you have to learn as it happens!"

After almost 20 years of paying her dues in theatre and film, Keeper sees Native cinema going through an exhilarating transition. With more projects like The Rez, In the Blue Ground and the feature film Smoke Signals being made, Keeper sees Native films becoming more accessible to mainstream audiences without compromising cultural integrity.

"These are exciting times right now because I think we're at a point where we're going to fast forward in terms of Indian film-making. There's going to be a new genre developed, where we're interpreting our own reality and other people will have to get used to it.

"There'll always be certain elements that are going to happen and come into our work because we are Native, from what ever group you're talking about whether that's Dene, Cree or another nation. But it's not the whole focus. That's not the whole story."