WHEN LIFE IMITATES ART
Montreal-based filmmaker’s zombie thriller just happens to have a pandemic theme
When Mi’gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby was shooting the zombie thriller Blood Quantum in 2018, he knew he was addressing themes of Indigenous sovereignty and the lasting impact of colonialism on his people. He didn’t know COVID -19 would come along and add its own voice to the conversation.
But sometimes life imitates art. In the film, a pandemic turns normal people into bloodthirsty zombies. For reasons unknown, Indigenous people are immune. So the inhabitants of the Red Crow reserve — played by Listuguj, a Mi’gmaq community in Quebec where Barnaby grew up — barricade a nearby bridge to keep out the “zeds.”
In real life, of course, COVID -19 does not care about ethnicity or nationality, which has led to many Indigenous installing barricades to keep visitors out and, they hope, keep the disease at bay. With limited medical facilities, crowded housing and a lack of fresh water, they are at greater risk if the coronavirus takes hold.
When I reach Barnaby by phone on March 27 — the very day Blood Quantum was to have opened in now-darkened cinemas — the plain-spoken filmmaker tells me he’s “hiding out like everyone else.”
He’s based in Montreal. “The f---in’ epicentre,” he says bluntly. “Côte Saint-luc is a mile down the road.”
That’s the Montreal suburb that remains a COVID -19 hotspot, with 924 cases per 100,000 people, roughly 10 times the rate in the rest of Canada.
He’s optimistic about an eventual theatrical release: “It’s a cinematic film, a panoramic film, meant to be seen in theatres,” he says. “You can’t watch this on your phone.” But since that call the decision was made to release the film online on April 28. Barnaby didn’t say you have to see it on the biggest screen you have, but I’ll make the point for him.
It’s a stellar piece of filmmaking at any size, equal parts pop-culture entertainment and cultural critique.
“It was the geek in me that wanted to do a zombie film,” he says. “I reverse-engineered this from that. How do you make something that’s oversaturated in the market relevant again?”
The answer turned out to be social relevance. “The heart of any good zombie film is — ” he pauses. “Well, Romero’s film was a social protest film.” That would be 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, which nimbly skewered contemporary views on race, class and consumer culture. Like all the best zombies stories, it had brains.
For its part, Blood Quantum casts its eye on the Indigenous/ settler divide right from the getgo. That title is a reference to U.S. blood quantum laws (also called Indian blood laws), that were once used to define Indigenous identity by percentage of ancestry. And the history of European-to-indigenous disease transfer, whether intentional or accidental, is long and fraught.
So why a zombie plague? “For me to do smallpox was too close to the bone,” Barnaby says dryly. “Zombie movies are a little bit more fun. And I didn’t want to alienate anyone. I wanted it to be entertaining enough that you could talk about it as a zombie film.”
Then there’s the fact that the film is set in 1981. “I abhor cellphones,” Barnaby says by way of explanation. “I had to get one five years ago. People were getting sick of me being in the film world and not being accessible.”
But when I press him for more, he allows that there’s another reason that is both personal and political. In 1981, the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation was raided by Quebec police over the issue of salmon fishing rights. The event was documented by Alanis Obomsawin in her 1984 documentary Incident at Restigouche.
Barnaby was there, just five years old at the time, but the standoff and the film made a huge impact on the young filmmaker-to-be. “1981 was significant for me,” he says. “Incident at Restigouche was a political awakening, an empowering movie and an empowering moment.” And so the same bridge seen in that documentary is where Barnaby’s characters put their blockade. “It was a very blatant we’re-still-here statement.”
The director can talk politics all day, but that would negate the entertainment value of Blood Quantum.
“I grew up watching stuff like Pulp Fiction,” he says. “It bridged a gap between artistic and commercial viability.”
Barnaby’s previous feature, 2013’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls, managed a similar balancing act, ably and adroitly.
Turning back to the pandemic theme of his new movie, he remarks: “A lot of what you’re seeing playing out on a mass scale has been playing out on reserves for some time; an environment that is actively trying to destroy you. The Mi’gmaq have been dealing with post-apocalyptic conditions for so long, they’re accustomed to living in these ends times. There’s even a gag in there about toilet paper!”
Blood Quantum is available to rent or own across all on-demand and digital platforms on April 28.
I didn’t want to alienate anyone. I wanted it to be entertaining enough that you could talk about it as a zombie film.