Extraordinary true stories of survival on the land fill Northlore with 'magic of the Yukon'

Five storytellers sit around a campfire, and as their stories weave together they grow, through animation, into lore.

"I think we were trying to grasp a bit that magic of the Yukon, the spell of the Yukon," said Melaina Sheldon, a Tlingit actor and writer who, alongside David Hamelin, co-created and co-produced Northlore, the National Film Board, Northwestel and CBC Absolutely Canadian documentary.

"It's a bit elusive, what we've done, because it's not paranormal," said Sheldon, adding it's "somewhere in between. We pinned down as magical realism."

The spark for the 54-minute film was a live-action and animated short shown at the 2020 Available Light Film Festival: The Provider told the story of Gary Sidney Johnson's first moose hunt as an adult.

"It was kind of like the pilot for Northlore," said Johnson, an entertainer and cultural ambassador in Carcross, Yukon. 

The stories of Northlore involve meetings with animals and survival experiences: An unexpected goose sighting while skiing a glacier, a wolf trailing a river journey, a life-or-death illness linked to a beaver, and a meeting with a group of rams that bullets won't touch. 

Sheldon says the animation, created with Winnipeg-based Dene artist Casey Koyczan and his team, allowed the film to recreate parts of the storytellers' pasts without having to hire actors, especially for the moose or eagle. 

Melissa Matheson Frost's story goes back to her childhood at her family's camp, when she got seriously ill, thousands of kilometres from any hospital. Her grandmother, Alice Frost, drew on traditional knowledge to help her heal.

"To see her grandmother Alice Frost in animation — she's passed on, but she's like, for me, a Yukon superhero," said Sheldon. "That's what it feels like to see young Dennis [Shorty, one of five storytellers in Northlore], to see Gary [Johnson]. These are heroes within the territory."

The film came full circle for its premiere at the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse on Feb. 7, but heroes still sometimes get nervous before the big day.

When he first shared his story, Johnson was worried hunters with more traditional knowledge might look down on him, "but if anything it's had the opposite effect," he said.

Men thank him for his story, and share their worries: 'I went hunting one or two times and I'm embarrassed about letting people know I've only went a few times,' or things like that."

For Frost, who's from the Vuntun Gwichin First Nation and grew up in the Yukon, the film fits how oral history keepers share their knowledge. 

"We don't tell people this is how you do things. You tell them a story, and … it encourages them to ask questions, it encourages them to research and wonder, and that's the kind of magic in it, is the empowerment."

"The First Nations of this land have a lot of stories and legend," Sheldon added. "This is how legends come to be, is you make your own legend … and these stories grow in their epicness and in their telling."

Sheldon hopes Northlore inspires others to make and share their own stories:

"Be brave, like all of our storytellers are brave, and go out to the land, and be ready to create your own story, your own lore, your own adventure." 

Northlore streams free on CBC Gem and on the NFB website.