TORONTO -- This fall, a distinctly Indigenous story will be hitting theatres -- a feature film 20 years in the making.
Thatâs how long it took to bring Eden Robinsonâs award-winning novel, Monkey Beach, to the big screen.
âI'm still stunned that it's in the world, that it's going out there,â Robinson told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝. âIt's just⌠I really don't have words."
Robinson is a novelist and short story writer from the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations who has been lauded for her writing both in Canada and internationally.
Monkey Beach, which was her first novel, is the story of a young woman struggling with her supernatural abilities in the wake of her brother disappearing at sea.
The trailer begins with an ominous plunge into water, and the voice of the main character:
âContacting the dead: lesson one,â she says. âConcentrate on nothing and everything at the same time."
The genesis of the story comes from Robinsonâs family.
âThe very first incarnations of Monkey Beach were a series of stories that Mom told me when I was a kid,â she said.
So itâs fitting that family has helped her interpret the story in the medium of film -- her sister, Carla Robinson, is the executive producer on the film.
This dynamic duo faced many challenges bringing this story to life. At first, no one believed in the project, and turning their home village of Kitamaat, B.C., into a movie set was no small feat. But there was nowhere else the story couldâve been filmed, the sisters say.
âMonkey Beach is a character,â Carla told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝. âThe pacific northwest is a character in the movie, you just can't get a stand in actor for that."
Kitamaat Village of the Haisla people is remote, home to 700 of the 1,700 Haisla members, according to the Haisla Nationâs website. Itâs an 18-hour drive north from Vancouver. Transporting cast, crew and gear was another hurdle to the filmmaking process.
"It just made it worth all the hard work,â Carla said. âWith Loretta and other people who believed in the project for so many years and got told no so many times.
âTo help make it happen, it was pretty magical."
Director Loretta Todd says the film is a story about empowerment.
âIt really is about Indigenous women embracing their medicine,â she told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝. âLisa, the main character, she goes on this journey to truly embrace the power she has within her.â
Monkey Beach is currently touring the festival circuit, recently opening the Vancouver Film Festival. It will be in theatres across Canada soon.
And itâs not the only Robinson project to hit the screen. The sisters teamed up to turn Edenâs bestselling coming-of-age novel, Son of a Trickster, into a six-part TV series, which started airing this month.