The first time Ottawa-born, L.A.-based composer Ron Sures tried to watch footage from the Big Motion Pictures MOW Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111, he had to turn it off after five minutes.

‘It was just too painful to watch; I couldn’t handle it,’ he says.

Sures, who started with the violin at age five, says putting the score to such a tragic – not to mention true – story was no easy task. (The film recounts the aftermath of the infamous plane crash near Peggy’s Cove, NS, in 1998.) Sures felt it was a very important piece that deserved the appropriate sensitivity and respect from everyone working on it.

‘The music for Blessed Stranger needed to communicate feelings of loss, despair, pain, anger, and ultimately, closure, redemption and optimism,’ says Sures. ‘I basically had to make myself sort of an open channel to the kind of scale of emotions taking place in the film. And once the channel was open, the story and the music kind of led me.’

Blessed Stranger director David Wellington has known Sures as a friend and collaborator for years, which made it easy for him to communicate his score ideas to the composer.

‘Any film or TV score is acting as a Greek Chorus of sorts, providing a wordless narration for the story being told,’ says Sures. ‘This felt especially true of Blessed Stranger. There was a lot of music, close to an hour, so it was obviously going to be an important element.’

Having drawn inspiration from a number of composers, ranging from Phillipe Sarde to Toru Takemitsu, Sures developed a score fusing Celtic and Middle Eastern sensibilities, using a wide range of instruments. His own interpretation of the MOW has altered since Sept. 11.

‘Given recent events, obviously, this film takes on an even deeper resonance than it already had, if that were possible,’ says Sures. ‘I really hope that people will get a chance to see it again, because I think it’s an immensely cathartic and helpful film.’

The score was mixed at Sures’ L.A. studio, and then delivered to Salter Street Sound in Halifax. Alan Scarthe was the chief mix engineer on the film and Dean Soltys was the post-production supervisor.

Sures is a Gemini nominee for best original music score for a program or miniseries for Blessed Stranger.