INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Eagles hockey team has already set its sights this year on the historic 113-year-old Allan Cup championship trophy but they’re also seeking celluloid glory.
Several Eagles played small but important roles in the new Alberta-made film Ties That Bind, a 120-minute dramatic thriller set in the 1930s that was partially shot last week in Delburne on Feb 15.
"I'm glad and proud that not only our players but our coaches are going out to help put these young men in a hockey movie. All of us on the board are hockey people, and to help somebody out is always a good thing," said Brian Spiller, the president of the Innisfail Eagles Hockey Club. "They are all doing it out of the good of their hearts and that is where the best work comes from."
The participating Eagles dressed in pioneer jerseys to play a classic 1930s championship hockey games on an outdoor rink.
There was direct action filming, as well as featured background shots during dialogue between actors in the stands as the hockey games were being played.
The Eagles dressed in the first game with jerseys for both the hometown team Delburne Miners and the Red Deer Rustlers.
In the Miners’ championship match against the Edmonton Victorias the Birds once again put on the jerseys for both teams.
“They are volunteering their time. That is the type of guys we have in that dressing room,” said Jason “Rexy” Reckseidler, a longtime member of the Innisfail Eagles Hockey Club who is the sports casting director for the film. “These guys are legit community-based guys, even if they are not from Innisfail.
"When asked to participate, the Eagles players jumped at the chance to give back to the creative community.”
Ties That Bind is being directed by Alberta filmmaker James Reckseidler, who is Rexy’s younger brother. The film is a Roadwest Pictures/reckseidlerfilms co-production.
James said Ties That Bind is set in Delburne during the Depression years around the Aberhart Social Credit government and its big promises of social dividends of $25 dollars a month to Albertan adults.
The film follows brothers Tom, Huck and Dan along an emotional journey that includes love, sex, murder, and betrayal.
“What we are really looking at is a microcosm of family, three brothers who are triplets and deeply rooted in the community,” said James, who also wrote the film’s script. “Their father was that guy who played goal, and he was also the politician everybody knew and liked.
"These brothers are the enigmas offspring of this and they each have to come to terms with living under that shadow of their father.”
A local crime has been committed, and there is plenty of drama in the town, and the hockey game becomes an important setting for an intriguing plot twist.
The loyalties of the three brothers are put to the test when Tom, a Social Credit MLA, comes back to town looking for $10,000 he desperately needs to avoid a political scandal. He goes to his brother Dan, a bank manager, but the needed $10,000 is simply not available.
“There’s a love triangle, complex family relationships and we are positioning it as a thriller. The audience goes on a ride with these guys as things tighten up. They learn there is $10,000 that is tied to a sister-in-law to the bank manager,” said James, adding the story, centred around Dan - the film’s protagonist - transitions to greed and then to sheer panic.
While Delburne, 52 kilometres northeast of Innisfail, is the setting for Ties That Bind, the village of 919 citizens is also the hometown of both James and Rexy.
Although the warm weather of late has caused some anxiety with pre-production, James is grateful to the Delburne community and the Innisfail Eagles hockey team for their support to the film project, which has a budget of nearly $1 million.
“The Eagles have been awesome. Rexy corralled them and he’s handling that coordination,” said James, adding Rexy also has an important on-ice role as the stand-in for goaltender brother Huck.
“Rexy pitched them the idea and 16 all wanted to do it and we signed them up. They think it’s a fun deal and that’s amazing.
“As we are scrambling as movie makers with a budget of just under a million dollars, just to know the community is so welcoming and they still think movie making is fun and they really don’t understand it but that warmth we are getting back home is really hard to articulate other than with great gratitude and gratefulness for how communities still operate.”
James said he’s expecting Ties That Bind to be released and distributed in a year from now, along with film festival showings to “generate some buzz’” for what his company and other Alberta filmmakers are doing for their industry in the province.
