Hilda area residents welcome filmmaker and crew, despite devastation from fires

By Tim Kalinowski on December 9, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

A new post-apocalyptic, science-fiction movie filming near Hilda will be using some local scenes from the wildfires of Oct. 17 in its final edit when the movie is released in 2019.

Planning for the film, tentatively titled “Father of Nations” by Alberta-based film company Thousand Year Films, has been in pre-production in the region for the past year-and-a-half, and was already scheduled to start filming in November prior to the fire. Co-producer Nathan Horch said his cast and crew decided to go ahead with filming as scheduled after receiving encouragement from local landowners.

“The week before we were going out, the wildfires blew through the land,” explains Horch, who is also the film’s writer and score composer. “I was really struggling with the idea of whether we could still go forward and film, but everyone we knew out there still wanted us to come. And they have been like: ‘Yeah, come do it.’ And they were even like: ‘If you want post-apocalyptic, we sure got it for you now.'”

Horch’s mother grew up on a farm near Hilda, and he has been working closely with cousin Sarah Kirschenman and her husband Andrew on finding locations for the film.

“It was a very sobering feeling walking out there and seeing all the black from the burns,” says Horch. “If we were doing a lighter movie like a comedy, I don’t think we could be out there and do it. But because the core messaging of the film is about how precious life is, I really feel there is a good honouring of what everybody has gone through there in what we have done. There is a strong reverence. We are just so appreciative of everyone around Hilda who has been supporting this film.”

Despite its grim setting, Horch describes the film as a spiritual meditation and a “love poem” to life.

“The post-apocalyptic setting is more the backdrop but I was using that to explore some themes about hope and the beauty and preciousness of life,” says Horch. “Everything in the natural world inevitably breaks down. It is the way things just happen as they are moving toward that entropy. So the question is: Where can that hope be placed when everything fails at some point? So it is a grim world we are in, but the movie is actually very beautiful.”

Director and co-producer Aleisha Anderson says everyone involved in making the film believes this is a powerful story that must be told.

“When Nathan first introduced me to this script it touched me, and the first time I read a scene I started to cry because it was so beautiful,” recalls Anderson. “It has been a great experience in getting to know the film, as well as really bringing it to life.

“We are a very small, independent company. We are privately funded so our budget is an issue. We have to be really resourceful and really creative in how we solve problems. With some of the larger studios they can bring in more equipment and people, but with our smaller resources we have to schedule a way to make it happen. A lot of it is taking advantage of the circumstances we are presented with.”

Thousand Year Films is not releasing many details about the actual story of “Father of Nations” yet. However, promotional images and music released to the media show a film which is visually stunning and epic in its scope.

“We are going to be shooting for most of 2018,” Horch states as the reason why key plot details aren’t being publicly released. “It’s going to take awhile because we have different seasons and a lot of different locations to film as well. We are looking at about a 2019 release date. This is such an ambitious film for such a small company. We would love to get as many people to see it as possible; so we are hoping to get it into a theatrical run when finished, and take it is as far we can go.”

Horch is not ruling out a possible test-screening in either Medicine Hat or Hilda, or both, when the first cut is complete. About a third of the final film, he says, will likely showcase the Hilda area.

For more information on “Father of Nations” visit the Thousand Year Films website at thousandyearfilms.com or follow them on Twitter @TYFilmsInc.

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