History repeats, says director of J.J. Harper story

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John Joseph Harper was walking home on a cold winter's night in early March 1988 after an evening out with his brother when he crossed paths with Winnipeg police constable Robert Cross, who was scouring the neighborhood for two Native men who had just stolen a car.

While no one is sure exactly what happened next between the two men, there is no doubt as to the outcome of their meeting. One bullet from Cross' gun went straight into Harper's heart, ending his life.

This is the reality of what happened on a dark city street 15 years ago. It's also a scene from the new movie, Cowboys and Indians: The Killing of J.J. Harper, which will have its television premiere on APTN on Oct. 3 and air again on CBC on Oct. 5.

The movie begins with the death of Harper, a well-respected leader in the Aboriginal community, and takes us through his brother's fight to uncover the circumstances of J.J.'s death.

Adam Beach (Windtalkers, Smoke Signals) plays the role of J.J., but although he is the title character, it is a supporting role. The main character of the piece is Harry Wood, J.J.'s brother, played by Eric Schweig.

The story revolves around Harry's attempts to have Cross (played by Currie Graham) held accountable for shooting Harper, the attempts of Winnipeg Police Inspector Ken Dowson (played by Garry Chalk) to cover-up the mishandling of the police investigation, and Dowson's suicide when the cover-up begins to unravel.

The movie is based on the book of the same name written by Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair Jr., published in 2000.

Schweig, whose acting roles have included, among other things, playing Uncas in The Last of the Mohicans and Tonto in a Lipton's Sidekick commercial, got involved in the project not so much because it was a movie about an Aboriginal icon, but because it tells a story that many Aboriginal people can relate to-the victimization of people of color by people in power.

"I was aware that things like that had been going on for years. And not just in Winnipeg, all over North America. I think it's that way, actually, worldwide, with Indigenous people. It happens on a pretty regular basis.

"I mean, there's a lot of that in different police forces all over the world. It's like institutionalized violence. They're just desensitized. They shoot first and ask questions later. And especially with Indigenous people who just through the media and generations of ignorance, they view Indigenous people as sometimes less than human, and it makes it easier for them to pull the trigger," he said.

"We're all aware of it in the Indian community, but I don't think a lot of other people are. So I thought it was cool that they brought it out, that they were going to actually make a movie about it."

The project has been in the works for a few years. Eric Jordan with The Firm Works Ltd. in Toronto had optioned the rights to the book, but problems with funding from CBC and getting a script kept the project in limbo.

Then co-producer Jeremy Torrie of Winnipeg's High Definition Pictures came on board, as did funding from APTN. Scriptwriter Andrew Rai Berzins was added to the mix and the project got underway.

Turning Sinclair's book into a movie was something Jordan wanted to do because of the significance of Harper's death within the Aboriginal community.

"I think on one hand that I was aware that for the Native community, the death, really the killing of J.J. Harper was a touchstone. Really such a senseless killing of a respected leader. And I think that for non-Natives, my feeling is that it's important that we take responsibility for the legacy of racism, and even genocide at times, that creates the mindset in which someone like J.J. Harper can be killed and then the killing be swept under the rug."

Unlike Jordan, who has produced a number of dramatic works, including Where the Spirit Lives and The Arrow, Cowboys and Indians is the first dramatic project Torrie has produced, although he does hav a number of documentaries under his belt, including the Powwow Trails series.

He was able to bring to the project an established working relationship with APTN and contacts within Winnipeg's Aboriginal community.

"And also I was able to bring that balance that you see in the film, the Aboriginal perspective," Torrie said.

"It had screened down at the film festival in Santa Fe ... everyone was really congratulatory to us about that fact, that it is so balanced, where you see the cops' side, but you also see the Native side."

Finding that balance was important to Jordan as well.

"What we tried to bring out in the script, on the one hand, with the Harry Wood character, is to really understand his feelings about his brother and what's driving him. And on the other hand with Robert Cross and Ken Dowson, their characters, to fill in more of who they were. Robert Cross is really pretty much an unredeemed character. He was just a wild card, and ultimately he drank himself to death. Whereas with Dowson, the Dowson character, you see first the conflict, then the contradiction. You know, when I think he must have just come to the point where he realized that he tried to protect one of his own, he had crossed a line, an ethical or moral line or principle, that he could no longer live with himself. That's really what we've tried to bring out in the story. Because I think in creating a film like this, it has to be strong. It has to be entertaining. The characters really have to grip people. And I think for the broad, non-Native audience, we want to get a strong message through to them, and at the same time we want to keep them watching."

Finding that balance in this film was difficult, director Norma Bailey said, because of the nature of the story being told.

"In this case it was definitely more of a challenge because it wasn't black and white in many ways. Cross, you could say, was a victim, and so was Dowson, a victim of an attitude prevalent within our society. And thy just happened to be the two fall guys. That doesn't excuse them for a second, but they weren't bad, bad guys. They were just people who were just an extension of our society. And they took the fall for it."

Most of Cowboys and Indians was shot in Winnipeg, but some scenes were shot in Shoal Lake, 300 km to the northwest, which doubled for Harper's home community. While filming on location, the community was involved as much as possible. Grandmothers and mothers were hired to do the cooking for cast and crew, and vehicles and snowmobiles were rented from local people needed for the shoot.

"It was a great experience for everybody, that we were able to bring it out there and shoot, and it turned out great. And at the same time, we were able to support the community," Torrie said.

"And it was really nice to have Gordon Tootoosis (who played J.J.'s father) and Adam and Eric out at the reserve because they were basically mobbed as the stars that they are in Indian country."

During production in Winnipeg, the re-enactment of Harper's shooting was filmed at the exact location where J.J. was shot, so before any scenes were filmed a ceremony was held, Torrie explained.

"It was a very emotional moment for the crew," Bailey said of the ceremony.

For people that claim a movie based on a killing that happened 15 years ago just isn't relevant today, the director of Cowboys and Indians begs to differ.

"To me, it's not the story itself. To me, it's the constant vigilance that these things do not go away. They keep resurfacing ... the guys freezing to death in Saskatchewan," Bailey said.

"Unless we're vigilant, and unless we keep hammering away saying this is not the way you treat any human being, people are innocent until proven guilty, you just can't give up. It's more of that, rather than it being J.J Harper's story and us remembering him again. It's more the issue. Yes, let's not forget these things are still out there."