Documentary about residential school experiences to premiere on CBC Gem

When Adam Solway first envisioned filming the theatre production New Blood, he visualized it as a 10-minute indie short.

“We had some funding to start with,” said Solway, who is a Blackfoot filmmaker from Siksika Nation in Alberta.

Solway then spoke with other filmmakers who suggested reaching out to the CBC. The national broadcaster has a series titled Absolutely Canadian, which provides funding to independent filmmakers to produce one-hour documentaries and unscripted programs telling unique stories from various communities.

“It was this time last year when we reached out to the CBC and sent them our proposal for the doc,” Solway said. “They got back to us right away and said they wanted to do it.”

The documentary takes a behind-the-scene look at New Blood, a theatrical production based on the residential school experiences of Siksika Nation Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman and others.

It was shot on location in Alberta with filming taking place in Siksika Nation, in the Strathmore High School theatre and the Engineered Air Theatre at Arts Commons in Calgary.

The high school theatre production, created and directed by Deanne Bertsch in 2014, was inspired by a poem written about Yellow Old Woman’s life and experiences in residential school, struggling with addiction as a young man, and eventually becoming Chief of his First Nation.

In the production, Yellow Old Woman’s grandchildren and the next generation of Blackfoot people perform the show, interspersed with interviews and conversations with Blackfoot Elders.

It is all set against the music of Peter Gabriel, which was provided to Bertsch and to Solway, rights-free. Gabriel is also an executive producer on the documentary.

The viewer is put right in the middle of the performance, often right on the stage next to the actors. Solway said this was a deliberate choice.

“My priority as a filmmaker was to present (the details of the show) through the film,” he said. “So, I wanted to be on stage with them.”

They attended one of the shows, where they filmed the question-and-answer session with the audience.

“Then we actually asked them to do a show for us and that's where we placed our cameras,” Solway said. “I think we filmed it once all the way through, then we did a second time where we actually went on the stage with them and filmed it.”

Solway came to the production through his producing partner, who saw the show a few years ago.

“He said it makes sense for someone from the community to direct this, so he asked me to come on the project,” he said.

The hour-long documentary allowed Solway and the team to spend more time with the story and more time with a wide cast of people who are involved in the show.

New Blood will premiere nationwide on CBC Gem on Nov. 22. It will then hit the film festival circuit.

Solway hopes people will see that Indigenous people should be able to tell their own stories.

“I'm very thankful that this story is from Siksika, and it's told by people who are from Siksika,” he said. “I hope they learn a little bit more about ourselves, where we come from, and that we're here today, and we get to tell our own stories.”