"Dream Storm": Comments from the cast and crew

These interview excerpts contain minor spoilers for "Dream Storm," and also
refer to events that happened at the end of the series. Please keep that in mind
when deciding whether you want to read them.

Lawrence Bayne, "Chief Neil Raymond"

PW: "They" being?

LB: They being the councils, both Lynx River and Swan Landing. Teevee now being the chief of Lynx River. We are now meeting to discuss this--with, of course, various outside interests. We are basically arguing over who gets the refinery for this pipeline and who has to deal with the pipeline running through some trapline areas. There are natural cuts made in the surrounding forest, and we're saying because Lynx River has these cuts, it would be better for them to have the pipeline and for us to have the refinery.

PW: I imagine Chief Tenia has another idea about that!

LB: Yes, yes. There's opposing views about the whole deal. On top of that, we have a murder that has occurred on a disputed trapline where people from both sides have been hunting. It's long been a disputed trapline. And there's bad blood between Lynx River and Swan River over various events in the past--a murder that occurred in the 50s, when traps were vandalized and houses were burned down. So we're trying to negotiate through that.

So we come up against of course the elders who won't approve it probably ever. And the young people who are probably too young to remember some of the bad things that occurred in the past. Whereas the elders are not, and they realize we haven't been the best of neighbors.

PW: So you and Chief Tenia are vying with the refinery company to get their business.

LB: Yes, and I don't want to give anything away, but this negotiation is also based on some...also, in one of the other stories in this particular movie, where someone else has been murdered, and "Dream Storm" as the name implies, they are going more into the Dene culture of reading dreams and interpreting them.

Tom Cox, Producer

TC: That's true!

PW: I was delighted to see in the original press release for "Dream Storm" that Gordon Tootoosis was coming back. Who doesn't love to see Albert? He's such a wonderful character. Although we never actually saw him after Joe supposedly shot him, in your mind, was he dead and gone?

TC: Sure. But the audience kept telling us he wasn't, that they hadn't seen him die. A lot of people said that.

PW: So how did it happen that you decided to bring him back?

TC: Well, again, we wanted to tell a story about a certain spiritual side of Dene culture in a way that we had dipped our toes in before, but never dived into. And the way that that culture deals with death and the living, with dream and waking, and the fact that there is no hard border between those in the way that European cultures have devised. We've put up very, very concrete walls between dream and waking states and between death and living. And the Dene just don't; the wall just doesn't exist.

So we wanted to explore that, and once we began that exploration, we wanted to deal with someone that had passed on, and who better? Again, because of the audience's desire to see that character again, and because of our own fondness for the character and the actor. It just made perfect sense to have him be sort of a voice from beyond that attempts to guide in some way.

PW: Yes, I understand that Albert comes back and actually tries to do some good.

TC: Yeah, and it was a subject of great debate, because here is this character who has personified evil--in a very interesting and complex way--but he's been our bad guy for years and years and years. And we thought, how do we do this in such a way that remains true to that? It was actually in talking to Tina that we finally came to realize it. She said, "Well, just 'cuz he was bad when he was alive, when you die, you learn more. So why would he be the same?"

He would be Albert in that he would never answer a question directly; he would turn everything around. Michelle asks him a question and he just spins it around and forces her to ask it of herself. That's pure Albert. But he would no longer have that earthly agenda. So that's when we really twigged onto how to use that character--what in Dene and other Native cultures are called the "grandfathers." They're not mortal any more. They are free of some of that baggage. So's Albert.

PW: From that and a few other things I've picked up about the movie, it just sounds fascinating.

TC: Yeah, we hope so. It's we think our riskiest one.

PW: It's a little "out there"?

TC: It's a little out there. But hopefully again, true to the culture, true to the place, true to the characters.

PW: And you've got one of your most experiences writers, Andrew Wreggitt, on it.

TC: Absolutely. And story editor Peter Lauterman. They are a wonderful team. They sort of raise the bar for each other.

Stacey Stewart Curtis, Director

SSC: Not so much once we got shooting. Certainly early on, Tina Keeper had very strong feelings about where the script was sitting, in particular with regard to the dreams and visions and the representation of that kind of story, because it's so specific to the Native community that it's an ongoing, everyday experience for many people.

I personally cannot admit to having had too many visions. I know I've had a couple of moments in my life where I've felt a connection to something that wasn't concrete and "there," so I can say, okay, I've had those feelings. But in each scene, we try to talk things through in terms of, "Okay, what are we trying to get out of this scene?" Sometimes they're really simple and straight ahead. The emotional scenes for Michelle are tricky in this one, because it's weaving a very delicate thread through this story and trying to bring this story together.

PW: What thread is that?

SSC: Well, she in the beginning is a bit disconcerted and thrown off and troubled within the story. Michelle's personal life seems in danger, and she doesn't know why.

PW: Do you mean she's in physical danger?

SSC: No, family life. And she's also thrown off by these dreams that she's having. Because of that, there's a delicacy and a vulnerability that needs to come through. But [Tina] has certainly been hitting the balance. And what is great is that she does come to me and say, "Okay, are we hitting this?" So it's a two-way street.

PW: It sounds like despite the film's complexity, it's been a very enjoyable project to work on.

SSC: Oh, fantastic.

Peter Kelly Gaudreault, "James Harper"

PKG: I think anyone who's familiar with "North of 60" is going to enjoy "Dream Storm," because it's very different than anything that's been done. It's a very, very ambitious story. Not just in terms of bringing back characters who we thought we wouldn't see again, but just the nature of the film, the existence of this other reality. There's a lot of stuff that's taking place in another dimension, which I think will be very interesting and very challenging for the audience.

Tina saw a cut of it, and she said it's really bizarre but in a really good way. But just so different from any other story that "North of 60" has done. And I talked to Tom [Cox] about it, and he said that's one of the reasons they wanted to do it. They kind of were biting their fingernails a bit because it is very ambitious.

So I think the fans are in for a real challenge, a real ambitious project from "North of 60." I think they're going to have to have a good night's sleep beforehand to sit down and actually follow the story. [laughs]

PW: Obviously this isn't a "sit down and read the paper while you're watching TV" type of show!

PKG: Get all your rest in, 'cuz you're gonna need it! Just focus in on the show.

Al Magallon, Makeup director

AM: Yeah, that's all mine.

PW: I don't want to give away too much of the plot of "Dream Storm," but there is a body found floating in the river.

AM: Yes, it is. He finally ends up on shore there, and that's when Joe Gomba finds it. And then from there, Joe goes to the detachment and tells Michelle and Harper.

PW: And then they put him in Jerry's freezer--much to Jerry's annoyance. [laughs]

AM: And then they keep finding him. Harris finds him in bed, and then Jerry finds him in the freezer.

PW: Jerry also sees him sitting in the store at one point, right?

AM: Yes, he was sitting in the store there dripping.

PW: So people keep having visions of this dead man.

AM: All the way down the line. Like when Sarah finds him sitting up in the detachment. Oh, it's Michelle who finds him first and then tells Sarah, and they go and take care of it. And that's when they decided to put him in the freezer.

PW: So you've been making up Derald Black Kettle to look like a dead man. When I saw him yesterday, his skin was black and blue, and his hair was all stringy.

AM: Well, the reason for that is because they've estimated that he's been in the river about 10 to 12 hours, and that's the reason why he looks the way he does.

PW: Was he also a bit bloated?

AM: No, he wouldn't be really bloated, because the water is so cold. And of course there was a really big gash on his head and all that.

PW: So when we all watch "Dream Storm," when we see Dead Bob, we should all keep Al Magallon in mind.

AM: And also Gordon Tootoosis, when I made him look very old.

PW: That's right, he's a ghost now. Did you make him look like a ghost?

AM: Yes, I had to make him look like a ghost, very pale looking. And then in one scene with Teevee, where [Teevee] looks at him, and he looks very, very old. And there is a way a way of doing it with simply base and powder.

PW: People do know that Albert is dead, so we're expecting him to look a bit different when he comes back. [laughs]

AM: But it looks so great!

PW: So part of the time he looks like a ghost, and the rest of the time just like an old man?

AM: All the time he looks like a ghost. The only time he looks extremely old is when Teevee sees him.

Andrew Wreggitt, Writer

AW: It really was. It was a challenge at every level. I struggled with the writing. I worked very hard at it and did a lot of drafts, and we finally found our way through it. And then the director had the same kind of struggle to find a way through this kind of material. No one has seen a TV movie like this before. It's not like anything that we've done--or anyone else, as far as I know.

PW: Did you have a lot of discussions with the Native consultants on this one?

AW: Yeah, I had a long talk with an advisor up in Yellowknife. We talked through what the plan was and what I was hoping to do, and she told me a lot of stuff that was very helpful, and kind of confirmed what we had hoped, that we had earned the right to do this story.

PW: They trusted you to tell the story well.

AW: Yeah, we had earned it. We had proven that we were serious and could be trusted to [handle it properly].

PW: Whose idea was it to bring in this degree of Native spirituality this time, do you recall?

AW: I think the very first thing I heard about it was, Tom [Cox] had been talking to CBC, to the executives there, and had said, "You know, it would be great if there was another movie, and maybe this time it could have more of a spiritual aspect to it." So then it was like, "Over to you, Andrew." [laughs]

So the first step was to go north, and go to Yellowknife in the dark to try to put this story together. It was a very good experience, and overall I learned a lot from it. I think it's going to be a pretty good movie. I'm always very cautious, but it brought a tear to my eye watching it in the studio, and I'd seen it a million times.

PW: It sounds very intriguing. And I was delighted when I heard that Mr. Tootoosis was coming back. I always had the feeling that this was the kind of show where being dead wasn't an obstacle to making an appearance. [laughs]

AW: Yeah, it definitely is the kind of place, and it's in the right community. This is an everyday thing in the Dene world, that the living and the dead are together. It's the sense of ancestry, and the sense of the continuity, that when people die, they aren't gone.

That's why you have to respect your ancestors, and why it matters how you live your life, because you have a responsibility to the people who have gone before you, and are still around you. In the end, it's all about the land, and the sense of strength that it gives the Dene people.