Horror, sci-fi and fantasy puts their mark on the north

Mason Mantla is no stranger to the camera. It is part of the work he does with kids in his job with the Tlicho Community Action Research Team.

So when the opportunity arose to get behind the camera for the “home-grown grassroots” Dead North Film Festival, he couldn’t pass it up.

“And I just wanted to make a horror film!” he said.

The Dead North Film Festival runs from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28. It is into its fourth year. This year will mark Mantla’s third in producing a short film for the horror-science fiction-fantasy genre festival.

His first year, he shot his film in minus 40-degree C weather just three days before the festival deadline.

“We’re definitely doing a lot more planning than we have in previous years, so we won’t shoot three days before deadline,” he said.

Mantla will be drawing on his experience, his new-found comfort and the strength of his team this year.

Dead North is a unique film festival that gives participants nine weeks to create, at maximum, a 10-minute short in its entirety, from writing the script to shooting the film to post-production editing. The created work is then screened in Yellowknife.

This year the competition was opened internationally to Greenland and Alaska. It already draws from the three northern territories, with the majority of submissions coming from the Northwest Territories. It already draws from the three northern territories, with the majority of submissions coming from the Northwest Territories.

There is one international submission in the 33 entries received and it comes from Iceland, said organizer Meagan Wohlberg, but there is a local connection as one of the team members lives in Fort Simpson and is studying in Iceland.

There is a good mix of experienced and novice participants, and this year about one-third of teams participating are led by women.

In a normally male-dominated profession, Wohlberg is thrilled that so many women are getting behind the camera. The original organizers of Dead North, she says, wanted to inspire amateur filmmakers and get more northerners involved in the film industry.

“It was just a fun challenge to get more people, even if you’re not experienced filmmakers, to take the plunge and do something new,” she said. “If you have a good idea, and you know some people, and if you have a camera on your phone, then there’s no real barriers here.”

Working with the bleakness of winter, the desolate landscape in the circumpolar north, filmmakers draw on some of the more chilling Indigenous legends and interesting stories that comprise the spookier tales in the three northern territories.

The festival’s founders thought horror, science fiction and fantasy would be a perfect fit and also a way to entice young people.

Mantla agrees enthusiastically. His first film told the story of Nàhga, which means “Bushman.”

“It was the creative entity that we grew up hearing about as kids to put us to bed,” he said. Mantla is Tlicho Dene from Behchoko.

In the film, a young man climbs a hill to get visions and if he gets specific visions, he ends up with medicine powers. He sleeps on the hill to soak up the powers. The catch? He can’t ever look behind him.

“We were playing on that trope, to have noises behind him, to have something behind him the whole time, but he really doesn’t know what it is until he looks behind him,” said Mantla.

Mantla’s work has been met with success. He has won the best use of the two northern elements as well as the audience favourite.

“Whoever gets the loudest cheer wins and all these people were cheering for my film and it won audience favorite. That felt pretty good because it kind of cemented my identity as a filmmaker. Maybe I could do this professionally or go on and try for greater things down the road,” he said.

The short films have to contain specified elements such as a line of dialogue or special northern element or specific angle shot, says Wohlberg, and often times they include Elders speaking in their Indigenous languages. The shorts range in time from three to 10 minutes.

While this year’s 33 entries are record-setting, Wohlberg expects about five or six won’t meet the deadline. Those that do will be screened at the Capitol Theatre, in Yellowknife, as well as posted online. And some of the entries may even go on to other festivals as they have done in the past, which include Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, New York Horror Festival, and Cannes (as part of the Canadian short film segment).

“There’s a lot of possibilities for people to pursue after Dead North,” said Wohlberg. “It’s about expanding the northern filmmaking industry.”