Up North Community Premiere

March 23, 2009, 6:11 pm

Up North premiered to the community in Edmonton, Alberta on Sunday March 22, 2009.  

The day began with a white-out blizzard, a sure sign of spring in Alberta.  With local roads shut down, and winter taking one last, vengeful swipe at the city, I was impressed by the number of people who made it to the theater to watch our film.

Edmonton is the northernmost major city in Canada and since the early days, it has been known as the gateway to the North. Fur traders from Scotland and France made it here searching for opportunity, pelts and fortune. Later, as the Klondike gold rush hit in the 1890’s, Edmonton was the starting point of the overland route to Dawson City, Yukon. Edmonton was home to the first commercial airfield in North America, and such aviation pioneers as Wop May, who first accessed northern Canada in open cockpits. Oil and gas became the next big draw, attracting workers from all corners of the globe in search of a better life.  This city has always been a northern outpost, and so it’s very fitting that we first screen this film here, where the journey started.

Up North is about the impacts of change on Northern Canada's people, landscape and history. In the theater that evening sat descendents of early settlers and Aboriginal chiefs, government officials, industrialists, artists, workers and everyone else that has coloured this region’s cultural landscape with such bold strokes. Edmonton may not be the most glamorous place, but for me, it’s definitely home. My great, great grandfather homesteaded just west of here in the 1890's; my roots run as deep as any non-aboriginal person living on the prairies. Presenting these stories to such a diverse audience was a great honour.

Documenting the voices of these wise and modest people of the North was the first part of the story, and I’m very excited to see how the next chapter of the journey unfolds as we share this experience with other people in other places.

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported us through to this point; this is your story too.

More good news on the way.

Drew McIntosh