‘Good storytelling is good medicine’: Metis filmmaker bringing lived experience to the silver screen

CTV's Daniel Halmarson gives viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of the movie 'Ancestral Beasts.'

On the surface, “Ancestral Beasts” is a horror flick steeped in Indigenous lore, but at its core, the upcoming film is a deeply personal look at Metis writer/director/producer Tim Riedel’s childhood.

“It’s actually based on my lived experience as the son of a Sixties Scoop survivor who, later in life, was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder,” Riedel told CTV News. “My mom was a wonderful person I loved really big, but she was suffering from something that I didn’t understand as a kid.”

Riedel was born and raised in Winnipeg and cut his teeth in the film industry working on cartoons and documentaries that took him all over the globe.

He credits a Métis Elder for pushing him to share his own experience.

“You always go so far away across the world to tell other people’s stories,” Riedel recalled. “How come you don’t even tell our stories?”

Riedel said he wanted to create a documentary but admits it “didn’t feel right.” Instead, the concept evolved into his first narrative feature film. He said the horror genre is a way to show the chaos and instability of his upbringing by turning his mother’s disorder into a real monster lurking in the shadows.

“The curses we inherit aren’t our fault, but what we let them become is our responsibility,” Riedel said. “And that’s a really important message to take forward.”

Riedel’s short ‘proof of concept’ version of “Ancestral Beasts” screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year and helped Riedel secure financial backing for the project.

The filmmaker returned to Winnipeg earlier this month to shoot the feature with production companies Buffalo Gal Pictures and Kistikan Pictures. Actress Morgan Holmstrom plays the lead in “Ancestral Beasts,” while Darla Contois, best known for her award-winning role in the Crave television series “Little Bird,” plays her sister.

Contois, who hails from Misipawistik Cree Nation, said the project brings conversations about trauma to the forefront.

“I think understanding more of the human experience, especially in a mental health sense, is a really great place to be,” Contois told CTV News.

She adds it’s important for Indigenous people to tell these types of stories from both sides of the camera.

“Representation is really important,” she said. “I think being able to see yourself in any way for anybody is very important.”

Riedel echoed that sentiment and pointed out that the “Ancestral Beasts” crew is predominately Indigenous as well.

“We have such a long history of being great storytellers. In fact, that’s how our history for tens of thousands of years has been shared,” Riedel said. “So give us a camera, and we’ll tell you some great stories. Good storytelling is good medicine.”

“Ancestral Beasts” doesn’t have a release date yet, though it will likely premiere at film festivals next year.

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