Hay River and surrounding area are on the verge of being the site of the first feature-length film in the South Slave in recent memory.
Kelvin Redvers, writer, director and one of the producers of Cold Road, is to begin filming next month. The project focuses on an Indigenous woman who travels to her remote First Nation to visit her mother before her mom passes away.
“She hasn’t been home in years and it’s kind of this emotional journey of her trying to reconnect and make amends with her guilt and shame of where she’s from and learning to love her home,” he explained.
The Town of Hay River contributed $25,000 to Redvers’ initiative at the Jan. 31 council meeting.
The film, which will run close to 90 minutes, will also be highlighted by a stranger in a semi-truck who tails the main character and won’t leave her alone.
“So the semi-truck driver adds the dramatic thrust to the movie, in terms of having a dangerous side,” said Redvers. “She’s also driving with her dog on the way and so it will make this an exciting, emotional and powerful movie, I believe.”
Born and raised in Hay River, Redvers said the project marks an important stepping stone in his career as he has been dreaming of creating a feature-length film since he first dabbled in short film at Diamond Jenness Secondary School in the 2000s.
“From the beginning in 2005, the goal has always been to make a feature film but one that could have both a national and international audience,” he said. “But it’s a lot of work to put them together and so it’s taken 17 years for that to happen.”
Since high school, he has been busy working toward this goal. After studying film production in university in British Columbia, Redvers has built up a resume of documentary work, broadcast journalism and a CBC documentary series.
He is also well known for co-establishing the We Matter organization with his sibling T’áncháy in 2016 to support Indigenous youth across the country.
The genesis of Cold Road came about in late 2019, but Redvers said he didn’t really get working on it intensely until about February 2021. Over the last year, he put together a producing team, finalized the scripts, and secured funding from various sources, including Telefilm.
Originally, the aim had been to shoot the film in northern Alberta to take advantage of tax credits.
“But the movie itself is inspired by the highways of the Northwest Territories and of my childhood growing up and driving these really remote roads,” Redvers said.
The highway experience in the NWT, he hopes to convey, has both a dangerous element when travelling, as well as a unique aesthetic.
“There’s something kind of beautiful about just being surrounded by the natural beauty and getting to experience a kind of contemplative time.”
Redvers has been spending recent days scouting locations for filming. However, he’s looking to support the community with the hiring of local crew members and caterers. He’s also hoping to get help with some needed equipment for sets.
“We’re going to be on highways and so we’re going to be in some remote places,” he said. “We are looking to rent things that could help us like, for example, a winterized RV that (someone’s) not using that we could use for our shoots. We’re also looking for things like portable heated spaces and a coach bus that can bring some of our crew members up from northern Alberta.”
Redvers’ team is also aiming to build a temporary ice road on Great Slave Lake and would like assistance from people experienced driving semi-trucks.
People interested in helping out with the film are asked to send Redvers an email at coldroadproduction@gmail.com.