Those of you who have read and enjoyed my interview with Julian Black Antelope, hold onto your hats! Julian has teamed up with another man of many talents, Satinder Kassoana and an ethnically diverse cast and crew to produce a 10 minute Indie Drama short entitled Don’t Walk Among the Dead – a vision of an icy post-apocalyptic world where the Dead walk, and the Living do whatever they have to do to survive. This story was created and filmed with the help of Telus Storyhive, a funding program for new Independent Content Creators in British Columbia and Alberta, the two westernmost provinces in Canada. Oh and by the way? It was among the winners! Out of 300 entries!
This short was filmed over the coldest two days of the year, near Dorothy, one of Alberta’s pioneer communities located about 15 km southeast of Drumheller, the heart of the Alberta Badlands. In January of 2016. In -30 C weather. Yep, you read that right. Talk about grit and determination!
The lead character – survivor Molly (Angela Giffin), is confused, frustrated and exhausted almost beyond endurance, but she is a realist too. She struggles to get her sick older sister Jasmine (Brenna Sommer) over the seemingly never ending snow covered plain to a rumored safe haven in the mountains. Jasmine is getting weaker with each step as the cold saps what little strength she has left. They seek refuge in an abandoned wood cabin, but at least it has four walls and a roof, and an old Dutch oven to build a fire in. Molly builds a little fire, and leaves her sister to rest while she goes to find some firewood, and maybe some food. While she is out gathering firewood, a foot carelessly placed alerts her to the presence of another person. As she grabs her rifle and turns, she sees a man, layered in fur, a tattered greatcoat and bloodstained denims with a homemade long shafted battle axe, also bloodstained, sneaking up on her. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I will stop the synopsis here, so that you can see for yourself what happens next. I’ll grab a tea while you watch.
Are you back? Did you notice the ethereal background music at the beginning? It gave me shivers. Rachel Soong, of Chinese descent, wrote and performed this piece and the rest of the score throughout the short. The somewhat deranged Metis man, Joseph, is Julian Black Antelope, who is also credited as executive producer, stunt coordinator, and the moving force behind putting the crew together. Satinder Kassoana, the creator, director, writer and executive producer is originally from the Punjab, where his parents gave him the option to either be a Doctor or an Engineer. He chose Engineering. He landed a high paying job with the second largest software company in India, and eventually made his way to Switzerland, where he worked with Credit Suisse. He found his way to Canada on a full scholarship to study for his Masters in Computer Engineering. Having more of an artistic, creative bent and being a natural story teller he gravitated towards the film and arts industry in his free time, and realizing that this was his niche, dropped out of his grad program. He turned his back on the scholarship, and threw himself wholeheartedly into his passion. A couple of years later, he moved to Montreal, where he wrote, directed and acted in his first short. Bonjour Ji is a powerful story about the communications gap between the ethnicities that work and interact every day, and how that gap can be closed by just a small shift in perspective. This short won Best Short-Film at five international film festivals including the IFFSA Toronto 2015, the DCSAFF 2015 in Washington, and the Richmond International Film Festival 2016 USA. Bonjour Ji has been screened in many other film festivals across the globe.
Satinder first saw the cabin that he eventually used in Don’t Walk Among the Dead, when he was out exploring Alberta for locations to build a story around. And it was while he was sitting in this cabin, located near the Atlas mine just outside of Drumheller, that he came up with the idea for his post-apocalyptic story, a genre that he loves, but has never written or filmed. When he and Julian hooked up, they discussed what Satinder had in mind for a story, and in very general terms, what sort of location would be needed. Julian spent a few days scouting locations, and took pictures of each, but the location he was the most excited about was the exact cabin where Satinder conceived the story in the first place. This cabin, located on the Historic Graham Ranch was actually a film prop that had been used in a number of productions. How serendipitous was that?
Through making this short, Satinder has built his core group… people that he would like to continue working with, through this and other films. This group is ethnically quite diverse. I have already told you a little about Rachel Soong and Julian Black Antelope, but the ethnic richness continues with Stéphane Legault, from Quebec, who not only played the infected man you saw near the beginning of the short at the cost of near hypothermia, he also was the Transportation Captain and the Caterer. Kaz Nakajima, the Key Grip, is of Japanese descent. Amir Javaid, Story Editor, is a young man whose heritage is Pakistani. His brother Omar Javaid was the behind the scenes Videographer. Hernan Moreno, Associate Producer and First Assistant Director, is from Latin America. The Costume Designer, Ralamy Kneeshaw, put together some amazingly realistic costumes within the budget that Satinder had, and he would love to continue working with her as well. Cinematography was by Phil Bowen; Shannon Joel Chapell was in charge of Production Design; Jade Brunes of Calamity Jade and her assistant Reid Fisher did the makeup – no prosthetics! Neil Enock (drone pilot and operator), Terry A. Brown (grip), Alexis Moar (first assistant camera), Yaz Arima (gaffer), Sophia Legault (craft service), Jordan Scott (story editor) and Allan Thrush (color grading) . All of the crew and the brilliant young actors Brenna and Angela, Julian and Satinder, have one extremely important thing in common, no matter their background or disciplines or languages spoken. They are, each and every one of them, passionate about films and film making, to the point where they will go out in -30 C weather to bring a vision to life.
And special mention goes to John Barry Graham, owner of the Historic Graham Ranch and the movie prop cabin that inspired the story, and his boys Byron and Robin Graham.
The story doesn’t end here. The complete script was not shot during those two days due to the extreme weather conditions and limited budget, which were factors in reducing the shooting time. But in spite of the challenges they faced, I am sure you will agree that they did an amazing job as a team in completing the bare essentials of the script. The current version is missing two key scenes which are absolutely essential to the film. These scenes will expand the film from its current 10-minute run time to 15 minutes of run time. So really, there is 33% of the film that has yet to see the light of day. The cast and crew were so passionate about telling the story in its entirety that they have gone back to shoot the missing scenes, spending their own money to do it.
Cast and Crew in the Cabin that Inspired the Story
Don’t Walk Among the Dead demands that Satinder complete his human-centric vision of the apocalypse. The team’s only remuneration and reward will be the satisfaction of having it seen by the film industry. Satinder has developed a Kickstarter campaign to fund the post production work so he can send it to as many film festivals and get as much exposure for his team as possible. If you enjoyed what you saw and would like to see Don’t Walk Among the Dead as it was intended to be, please click here. The personal satisfaction of helping this determined group of people showcase the relationship between Molly and Joseph in the icy wastelands as they come to depend on and learn from each other in their struggle to survive will NOT be your only reward. There is SWAG!! Your name in the credits! How awesome would that be? Digital Posters! Limited Edition mugs and tees! The Digital Soundtrack, and so much more.
Thank you in advance for helping to bring Don’t Walk Among the Dead to life!
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Satinder Kassoana and Julian Black Antelope team up in this Indie Drama Short. The Dead walk and the Living do what they must to survive.
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