Edge of the Knife

In a 19th-century summer, two large families gather for their annual fishing retreat on the far-removed island of Haida Gwaii. , a charming nobleman, causes the accidental death of his best friend 's son and hastens into the wilderness. is tormented by what he has done and spirals into insanity, becoming , a supernatural being crazed by hunger. He unexpectedly survives the winter, and at next year's gathering, the families try to convert , back to , while also wrestles with a desire for revenge. ==Production==

Development The idea to make Edge of the Knife came from University of British Columbia professor Leonie Sandercock and Haida Gwaii community organizers who wanted to encourage learning Haida, classified as an endangered language with fewer than 20 speakers at the time of the movie's production. After an idea submission contest, Haida brothers Gwaai and Jaalen Edenshaw, as well as Graham Richard, joined Sandercock in 2014 to begin work on the script. Over twelve months, with advice from fluent Haida speakers Diane Brown (the Edenshaws' grandmother) The writers tried to give equal screen time to the northern dialect, from Old Massett, and the southern one, from Skidegate, "to encourage members of both communities to learn their own dialect and to have a film that would showcase both," as Sandercock wrote. which refers to a Haida proverb: "The world is as sharp as the edge of a knife; as you go along you have to be careful or you will fall off one side or the other." Edge of the Knife was co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw (in his directing debut), who is Haida; and Helen Haig-Brown, who is Tsilhqot'in. With Edge of the Knife, filmmakers intended to preserve Haida language and culture for future generations. The production for Edge of the Knife was done with in funding, the Council of the Haida Nation, the Canada Media Fund, and British Columbia and federal tax credits. "The film reflects a resurgence of indigenous art and culture taking place across Canada," Catherine Porter wrote for The New York Times in 2017. Each day after language activities together, actors would break into small groups, sometimes individually, to be instructed by fluent speakers. After a week of language training, the actors had most of their lines memorized. The actor training cost a total of ; producer Frantz said he considered dubbing difficult lines in post-production. Women produced traditional costumes by weaving red cedar. During the recording process, actors continued improving their pronunciation of Haida words with the assistance of fluent speakers. Filming was scheduled to end on 2 July. The film was in editing in November 2017, The film has been released with English subtitles. ==Release==

The film's creators said the primary audience for Edge of the Knife is the population of Haida Gwaii, where the film may be a teaching tool and time capsule for the language. Edge of the Knife made its public premiere on 7 September at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It was noted as one of several indigenous-film premieres at TIFF along with Falls Around Her and The Grizzlies. It was also shown on 3 and 5 October at the Vancouver International Film Festival, It also closed the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival on 21 October. Edge of the Knife is distributed internationally by Isuma, Its Australian premiere was the opening film of the Birrarangga Film Festival in Melbourne on 26 April 2019. Edge of the Knife, Sandercock said, can be used to teach the language to Haida youth as part of a month-long "language module". She said that some members of the cast and crew, motivated by their work on Edge of the Knife, had begun receiving new acting roles and begun training others to make movies under the Haida production company Niijang Xyaalas. ==Reception==

Edge of the Knife received positive reviews from critics and audiences. According to Patrick Davies of The Williams Lake Tribune in Williams Lake, British Columbia, it "generated a ton of positive buzz" after its festival showings with particular praise for "its storytelling and community-minded approach to filmmaking". National Post Chris Knight wrote: "Its heart and soul transcend language." Teresa Nieman of Screen Anarchy called Edge of the Knife "a triumph of Indigenous creativity" whose "commitment to authenticity is admirable". Nieman also wrote that the "quiet, moody, meditative" film became "truly immersive" because of untouched scenery of Haida Gwaii and because the "characters typically speak in a slow, poetic lilt". The Globe and Mail reviewer Barry Hertz commended the filmmakers for "turning a seemingly simple story of human nature into a captivating and at times stunning work" that contains "themes of guilt and redemption" presented "in a vision so distinct and unfamiliar to audiences that the film feels abundantly fresh". Volkmar Richter of The Vancouver Observer wrote that "the film is gripping, exciting and visually stunning"—it is "high drama and very modern in both pace and look". Nieman also wrote that "the movie is gorgeously shot" except for "a few overly stylized scenes depicting 's increasingly feral perspective". Edge of the Knife won best British Columbian film and best Canadian film at the VIFF British Columbia Spotlight event on 6 October. At imagineNATIVE, it won the Sun Jury Award. Accolades Film festivals Edge of the Knife has been programmed at several major film festivals: • Toronto International Film Festival, 6–16 September 2018 • Vancouver International Film Festival, 27 September – 12 October 2018 • imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, 17–21 October 2018 – closing gala screening • Smithsonian Institution's Mother Tongue Film Festival, 21–24 February 2019 • Kingston Canadian Film Festival, 28 February – 3 March 2019 Awards ==See also==