Robbe, a German tourist in his mid-forties, is partaking on a life-long dream of visiting the West Coast of Canada. His fantasies of being a part of the great “Indian” culture is one thing, but to actually be part of it requires Robbe to undergo a dangerous rite of passage in this black comedy, as determined by three aboriginal men who take him on a journey of self-evaluation.

Pilgrims will be shot with a dark and moody aesthetic taking its cue off the West Coast environment that can at once contrast dark hues with stark light, and then shift again, in a more subtle illumination to reveal what is just beyond that which can be imagined, or just below water that literally rolls like a God.

Generations of artists including Norval Morrisseau, Emily Carr, Connie Watts, Toni Onley have combined a contrasting visual optic that fuses modern storytelling with a deep West Coast mythology rendering a visual experience that is layered in meaning and impact.

Camera angles will be carefully carved to create a dual and contrasting perspective of ‘them’ and ‘us’, new-comer and old-timer, immigrant and Aboriginal, man and woman, human and animal. Simply put, how we see is almost as important as what we see. Some examples of this include John Hillcoat’s The Proposition that carefully underscored the tension and subtle cues of resistance, revealed by Australia’s Aboriginal character’s caught in a settler’s drama, the growing threat and velocity of violence in Steve McQueen’s Hunger between Irish inmates and their captors, and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, that weaved the threads of a haunting landscape, with a young’s girl’s will against an ancient and deadly down home patriarchy. In turn, I am pursuing visual treatments that can create a suspension in the telling, heightening the cost of each relationship by what is seen, what is denied, and ultimately revealed.

Pilgrims will be shot on Red HD, and feature music by Cris Derksen and Kinnie Starr again highlighting the sound of fusion- be it Aboriginal and classical European cello, and/or Aboriginal and Pop (New World). Both musical artists have crafted a sound that speaks to their Aboriginal roots, and include European and American influences that make them absolutely distinct, yet completely Canadian.

Although Pilgrims was created to investigate and construct a West Coast/New World/ Aboriginal expressionism through film, it also offers a universal narrative that explores the crisis of self and identity, alienation and acceptance, and what, for many of us, has become the forming of the modern family across cultural, racial, and historic boundaries. Through Robbe’s journey in Pilgrims we are able to perceive that a true pilgrimage is a passage to acceptance.

The making of this short, in short, is a gift in the making. It allowed an emerging director the opportunity to construct a vision that is wholly representative of her body of work as a storyteller. It allows a story to be told that has never been told from this lens, this perspective, and it allows the director to be surrounded by the very best in front, and behind the camera.

Marie Clements – Writer/Director