July Talk's Live at the Drive-in comes to Thunder Bay, Ont., in support of First Nations students

A special fundraiser in Thunder Bay, Ont., will confront the fact that COVID-19 cancelled concerts and closed classroom learning for First Nations students in remote First Nations.

Toronto band July Talk's Live at the Drive-In will play on the big screen on Saturday, September 12 at the north end parking lot of Thunder Bay's Intercity Shopping Centre. Some of the proceeds from the event will go to helping students from Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations high school adapt to distance learning during the pandemic.

The event continues a "unique bond" the band has with students from remote communities in northwestern Ontario, said music teacher Greg Chomut.

"They keep surprising us with how they keep connecting with the school, how they keep finding ways to be a part of the school community," he said.

The first connection came during the New Constellations tour in 2017, when band members held a song writing workshop with First Nations students and then followed up by recording the song with them. Mourning Keeps Coming Back was released the following year and is available on CBC Music and Spotify.

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Then the band helped organize, and played at, the inaugural Wake the Giant music festival last year, that raised funds and awareness to support First Nations students who don't have high schools in their remote communities and must come to the city for secondary school.

"They have a heart that just keeps giving," Chomut said. "We've never really asked them for anything and they just keep coming back and giving more."

The movie, which is a recording of a drive-in concert July Talk held near Newmarket, Ont., in August, is being shown in partnership with Interstellar Outdoor Cinema, The Walleye magazine and Wake the Giant, which had to cancel its music festival this year because of the pandemic.

Dennis Franklin Cromarty school is closed to in-person learning in September because of funding shortfalls facing First Nations schools attempting to adhere to public health guidelines during the pandemic. It was the band's idea to direct funds specifically to those needs, Chomut said.

• Schools resort to phone and fax machine to restart classes in northern Ontario First Nations

Money raised at through the drive-in will help students access supplies for art or music classes the school will offer online. Chomut said it'll be a challenge to meet the needs of students from in fly-in communities that don't have reliable internet connections and no where to buy the "odds and ends" needed to make art.

"At first I thought 'my job is impossible, I wish I taught a different subject,'" Chomut said. "Then I talked to the phys ed teacher, the shop teacher. It's a real challenge for every subject."

The school is breaking up the year into shorter "quadmesters" to increase their ability to adapt to whatever changes the pandemic and the availability of funding bring, he said. So Chomut will teach a history course online to start and pivot to a media-based art class later in the year when more logistics have been worked out.

Tickets for the drive-in movie about the drive-in concert can be purchased at interstellarcinema.ca. The website also includes an option to make a donation to support Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School.