Musical documentary explores quest for Aboriginal rights
Marie Clements’ The Road Forward is a surprisingly entertaining documentary on B.C. Aboriginal activism
ON SCREEN What: The Road Forward Where: Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas St. When: Saturday, 7 p .m. Tickets, info: victoriafilmfestival.com
Although the two films’ subject matter is worlds apart, don’t be surprised if you find yourself flashing back to La La Land while savouring the drama and creative ingenuity that propels The Road Forward.
That isn’t intended to trivialize the Indigenous civil-rights history that Marie Clements (Métis/Dene) explores in her musical documentary, but to emphasize its innovation and accessibility.
The prolific Vancouver-based writer and director will be in attendance for her documentary’s Vancouver Island première Saturday, 7 p.m., at the Vic Theatre.
Her film will also be screened Nov. 21 at Port Hardy Civic Centre; Nov. 22 at Gate House Theatre in Port McNeill; Dec. 6 at Gabriola Island’s Roxy Theatre; and Dec. 11 and 12 at UVic’s Cinecenta.
In one memorable sequence, Mohawk actor and musician Cheri Maracle portrays a woman in 1940s B.C. who has summoned the courage to leave her abusive husband. Clutching her suitcase and a help wanted ad, she glances at a family portrait before leaving her eerily quiet household at dusk. She gasps as her husband’s image springs to life, as if he’s about to strike her one more time.
She will soon join the Native Voice, Canada’s first newspaper to focus solely on Indigenous issues. It was founded in 1946 by Maise Hurley, a Wales-born publisher on a mission to get the native voice out.
The revolutionary newspaper’s headlines are intermittently referenced in The Road Forward, bringing into sharp focus the grassroots First Nations activism on the West Coast that the paper helped to inspire.
Maracle’s departure sequence is a powerful prelude to her char- acter’s musically rendered narrative, one of many creatively conveyed by a talented cast of Indigenous performers. One of the first to appear is hip-hop artist Ronnie Dean Harris, who, while embodying First Nations activist George Manuel, beseeches his audience: “If you really believe we have been here forever, if you really believe … you don’t ask for it, you take it.”
His musical declaration sums up the film’s message about the ongoing need for change, and why decades after the dawn of Indian nationalism, First Nations should no longer have to ask for rights to be recognized.
“I would like for us to be seen, heard and acknowledged,” says musician Michelle St. John, one of many Indigenous voices whose input helps dispel misconceptions while seeking to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself.
“I would like for the truth of how this country came to be to be fully understood by every single person who lives here, and I think if that happens, we have a shot at getting something right.”
The Road Forward fluidly intercuts archival footage with commentary from artists who share their own stories, elders from the Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood of British Columbia, the oldest active Indigenous organizations in Canada, and other ancestors of Indigenous heroes. Their historical input is interwoven with beautiful ballads and rousing anthems that Clements and her collaborators employ to chronicle the history of Indigenous activism through six generations. Dramatic highlights include sequences recalling the genesis of the newspaper that became a catalyst for change, as well as the Constitution Express.
That movement, launched in 1980 by the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs with Manuel at the helm, pledged to combat any attempt at patriation of the Constitution that would cause First Nations people to lose their Indigenous rights. Their message was imparted via two trains that chugged from Vancouver to Ottawa with hundreds of First Nations protesters onboard, prompting Section 35, which entrenched Indigenous rights.
The eclectic group of on-camera contributors who bolster this film, set to a rock and bluesy score, includes native-rights lawyer Tom Berger, composer Wayne Lavallee and activist Edwin Newman from Bella Bella.
Clements’ project, which originated as a 10-minute live performance piece commissioned for the Aboriginal Pavilion at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, is notable for being both an historical eyeopener and highly entertaining.
Clements said she began writing lyrics based on headlines and stories she read in archived copies of The Native Voice, and then “started riffing on this idea of bringing words and music together” with musicians she knew.
Indeed, one of the film’s most compelling sights and sounds is her use of vintage typewriters tapping out headlines in a newsroom, evoking what sounds like drumbeats within a powerful visual motif.
Describing The Road Forward as “a beast, but a beautiful beast,” Clements said her objective was to replicate how an audience experiences information gleaned from newspaper headlines and stories.
Working with composers “to fuse together both the [story’s] intention and the musicality,” she said they wanted to get inside the minds of witnesses while telling their stories musically and cinematically.
She has fulfilled that artistic vision brilliantly.