Monkey Beach
Waking up in her East Van apartment nursing another hangover, Lisa (Grace Dove) is served notice by her cousin’s ghost (Sera-Lys McArthur), “Your family needs you.” Reunited with her Haisla kin in Kitamaat Village, she realizes that she’s meant to save her brother (Joel Oulette) from a tragic fate she’s foreseen since childhood. Of course, there’s also the matter of contending with the mystical creatures lurking in the nearby woods. And so begins a captivating allegory about learning to coexist with both the ghosts that haunt us and spirits who might enlighten us.
In bringing Eden Robinson’s beloved novel to the screen, Loretta Sarah Todd offers us a modern epic underpinned by themes that have long defined heroic journeys. Todd’s first feature narrative unfolds through a thrilling array of temporal shifts and stylistic flourishes. A film about reconnection with the land, its denizens and the secrets it holds, Monkey Beach is also a testament to Indigenous women’s ability to not just endure trials but emerge from them empowered.
CAST
Grace Dove, Adam Beach, Tina Lameman, Nathaniel Arcand, Stefany Mathias, Joel Oulette, Sera-Lys McArthur, Nick Dangeli, Zoey Snow, Oliver Tru Sison, Miika Whiskeyjack
Eden Robinson
is an Indigenous Canadian author. She is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations.[1]
Robinson’s first book, Traplines (1995), was a collection of four short stories. The young narrators recount haunting tales of their disturbing relationships with sociopaths and psychopaths. The collection won Britain’s Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for the best regional work by a Commonwealth writer.[2] One of the stories, “Queen of the North”, was also published in The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Another of her short stories, “Terminal Avenue“, (which was not included in Traplines) was published in the anthology of postcolonial science fiction and fantasy So Long Been Dreaming.
Her second book, Monkey Beach (2000), is a novel. It is set in Kitamaat territory and follows a teenage girl’s search for answers to and understanding of her younger brother’s disappearance at sea while in the retrospective, it tells a story about growing up on a Haisla reserve. The book is both a mystery and a spiritual journey, combining contemporary realism with Haisla mysticism. Monkey Beach was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize[4] and the Governor General’s Literary Award,[5] and received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.[6]
In her third book, Blood Sports (2006), also a novel, Robinson returns to the characters and urban terrain of her novella “Contact Sports,” from Traplines.
Her novel Son of a Trickster (2017) is a humorous coming of age novel and the first of a trilogy.[5] It took Robinson eight years to write, and was originally conceived as a short story.[7] The second book in the trilogy is Trickster Drift (2018), which follows the main character from Kitamaat to Vancouver. The third book in the trilogy will be titled The Return of the Trickster or The Trickster Returns.[8] Son of a Trickster was optioned for a television series, premiering as Trickster on CBC Television in 2020.
Director – Loretta Sarah Todd
Female. Cree. Metis. White. Writes. Directs. Thinks. Produces. Challenges herself and others and makes things happen. And yes, she has many awards and accolades. Known for lyrical, expressionistic imagery combined with strong storytelling skills, Todd tells truths that are haunting, funny and real. Credits include award-winning documentaries, such as Forgotten Warriors, The People Go On and Hands of History. She created, produced and directed Tansi! Nehiyawetan, a Cree children’s series on APTN. And, she created MyCree, a Cree language learning app – and which has over 20,000 downloads. And she created Fierce Girls, a webseries and transmedia project for Indigenous girls about Indigenous girl superheroes. She is also in development with a new animated children’s series called Nitanis & Skylar.
Ms. Todd also initiated organizational change within cultural practice in Canada, helping to develop media training programs, reviewing policy through various committees and creating the IM4 Lab – a VR/AR Lab in collaboration with Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Recently she was chosen as a Lead Fellow to MIT, through the Indigenous Screen Office.