VANCOUVER—Actors in the new film Sgaawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife), which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, didn’t just have to learn their lines for the film — they had to learn an entire language.

A few months before filming, the all-Haida cast was sequestered in cabins on the archipelago’s north shore and underwent a language “boot” camp taught by Haida elders — starting with learning more than 20 unique sounds of the language and eventually practising their lines.

“That was a massively difficult task ... only three or four of the cast knew how to speak the language and virtually no youth,” said Leonie Sandercock, a UBC planning professor and one of the film’s screenwriters.

Known as a language isolate with no commonality to any other language in the world, the two dialects of Haida Gwaii were spoken by fewer than 20 people, mostly elders. The film, which is spoken entirely in the Haida language, is the first in the world and the first feature shot on Haida Gwaii.

Revitalizing the Haida language has been a priority for the leaders of the Haida Nation. So when Sandercock first visited their community as part of a planning course at UBC, they began talking about the potential for a film that would feature the language and spur interest in more people learning it.

The number of people who can now sound out the complex sounds of the Haida language is growing.

“The emotional impact of this project is difficult to describe. The Haida nation is ecstatic to have taken part and to see the finished product,” Graham Richard, one of the film’s screenwriters, said in a statement.

But language revitalization wasn’t the only goal of the film.

When Sandercock first visited the island, she was already studying the ways that film could affect the planning and revitalization of communities. As the film project grew and a dialogue started with the Council of the Haida Nation and the producers, she began to realize that it was possible for the community planning goals of the Haida council — which included language revitalization, economic development and protecting the environment — could be aided with a film set on the archipelago.

“I wanted to explore the potential of film as a catalyst for Indigenous community development,” she said. “I argued that if we made a film in the Haida language, we could employ as many Haida as we could, with working in film instead of working in extractive industries. The response from the president was, ‘This is a no-brainer.’”

Since it was hard to secure funding for a documentary, producers realized a feature film could bring in more funds, enable them to hire more Haida people and have a bigger impact. Sandercock helped raise money for the project, eventually raising $1.8 million.

They set about holding community meetings to learn the types of stories people were interested in and then decided to hold a story contest to finalize the storyline, eventually landing on three Haida writers — brothers Gwaii and Jaalen Edenshaw, and Graham Richard.

The screenplay, which is based on a Haida legend known as Gaagiixit, or The Wildman, was then translated by Haida elders into the local dialects. Filmmaker Helen Haig-Brown came on board to co-direct with Gwaai Edenshaw.

One of the producers, Jon Frantz, who was initially an urban planning student of Sandercock and worked on films with the Inuit community, said that the economic impact was already apparent once the production got underway. He cited an injection of more than $800,000 in wages that have gone to members of the community working on the film.

“Over a million dollars was brought directly into the Haida communities of Skidegate and Old Massett,” he said. “One very tangible impact is bringing employment opportunities to a remote community where it is hard to have a diversity of opportunities.”

The film has already created opportunities for its participants, with the crew travelling from Haida Gwaii to the premiere at TIFF — the first stop on what Sandercock hopes will be a year of international exposure for the film.

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But Frantz and Sandercock were also concerned about making sure the film was not just a one-time deal, and wanted the impact to be lasting.

“If only the film is a success, I wouldn’t consider it a success for the project,” Sandercock said. “Will it lead to jobs for the people who were involved? It's about the long-term assessment for me.”

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Sandercock has now received an academic grant allowing her to spend the next four years attempting to answer that question and to measure the impact of the film on Haida Gwaii. The crew that produced the film has started its own production company, Niijang Xyaalas Productions, with hopes to continue the development of films on Haida Gwaii.

She has begun to hear of future opportunities being opened up for the film’s young actors, most of whom are brand new to the acting world.

“I’ve been hearing that several actors (have been) getting calls for new roles, and that’s exciting.”

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