The First Encounter, an Indigenous sci-fi feature from Benjamin Ross Hayden, has wrapped production in Manitoba and Alberta.

The $2.8 million project is produced through Hayden’s Alberta-based prodco Manifold Pictures and Manitoba’s High Definition Pictures.

The First Encounter is Hayden’s third feature film after Red-Eye and The Northlander. It tells the story of a woman who must decide between staying in her home town or returning to her home dimension after mysterious forces from an Indigenous extraterrestrial world seek her out.

It stars Sera-Lys McArthur (Outlander, Monkey Beach), Braeden Clarke (Outlander), Neil Napier (The Disappearance) and Eugene Brave Rock (Shadow Wolves). Key scenes are filmed in the Indigenous languages of Blackfoot, Nakoda and Cree.

The project was supported through the CMF’s Aboriginal Language program (it received $787,000), with Hollywood Suite picking up Canadian TV rights and Bandwidth Digital Releasing taking domestic digital rights.