INNISFAIL – Opening the doors for dialogue and connecting cultures.
That’s what Inuit filmmaker and musician Dennis Allen aspired to do by producing documentaries about Canada’s Indigenous people of the North.
“There’s talk now of reconciliation. I think people are ready to move forward,” said Allen. “We’re ready to shake hands and build bridges and I always wanted my work to do that.
“(They show) our lives from our own perspective. To see what we’ve endured and what we’re accomplishing,” he added.
Allen presented the first of several documentary films at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre on March 22.
The film series will run for four months, with one film a month, said Allen.
“They’re documentaries about Indigenous peoples from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.”
Allen has written, produced and directed about half a dozen films over his career and has also directed several television series with the Discovery Channel, CBC, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network and the National Film Board.
The film series is free of charge to the public and includes several films about First Nations, Metis and Inuit culture, about life in the North and some of the issues many of Canada’s Indigenous peoples have faced over the years.
“My second film is another film with the National Film Board that I wrote and directed. It is called Crazy Water and it’s based on a book of the same name where the author interviewed First Nations, Metis and Inuit people about their experiences with alcohol,” said Allen. “There’s a lot of films that are made by non-aboriginal people on that subject. I thought it would be good if we told our own story."
Other films in the series talk about Allen’s father and the generational strife between them.
“He grew up in a very traditional Inuit way. His message was to teach the virtues like patience, tolerance and respect. I always had trouble with that,” said Allen.
The final film in the series is about the mad trapper of Rat River, Albert Johnson, a fugitive from the Northwest Territories in the 1930s, who led RCMP on a manhunt after killing an officer.
“I led a team from the Discovery Channel to exhume (Johnson’s) body,” said Allen.
“It’s a piece of Canadiana. It was the first time a manhunt was broadcast live on radio."
