A local Cawston couple received a $20,000 grant from STORYHIVE to produce a short film.
Madeline Terbasket and partner Damien Eagle Bear will use film to create actor animation to tell the story of Coyote (Senklip) and his dreams of flying high like Eagle.
“I’ve been telling this story for four years. It’s one that’s passed down, but usually it’s just told orally. I added all the physical comedy to it,” Terbasket said.
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Terbasket and Eagle Bear met in film school several years ago and have worked together on a variety of projects since then.
The pair are excited to use “old school film” to create the actor animation.
“A lot of the cost is going into the film itself. The style plays with frame rates. It was something we saw in a film called Neighbours that we’ve wanted to try out,” she said.
The story called Q’sapi Times has a young film crew show up at an elder’s home named Skemxist, played by Terbasket. While there Skemxist tells the story of Coyote (Senklip) who desperately wants to fly high like Eagle. Of course as it goes with Coyote (Senklip) things don’t work out as planned and his brother Fox is needed to save the day.
“In the story he jumps off the cliff like Eagle and then the audience learns that you should just be yourself,” Terbasket said with a laugh.
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“We’ll shoot this part on real film in Coyote, Eagle and Fox costumes and masks out on the land in a good, humble way.”
Filming is expected to take place at the end of April and the film must be complete by July 22.
Only 30 applicants received approval for their project out of 300 who applied.
Terbasket said the application process included a one-minute video outlining the project and a description of how it would impact your community.
Terbasket said she hopes to take the film to festivals and do several community screenings.
“I’m pretty excited for the community screenings. It’ll be awesome to show the film here. I think it’s going to turn out really well,” she said.
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STORYHIVE’s Indigenous Storyteller Edition opened for submissions in October 2018. Grants totalling $600,000 were handed out last week to boost the careers of Indigenous creators.
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