Toronto-headquartered Wabung Anung Films and Whistler-based prodco Sea to Sky Entertainment are teaming up for a feature doc on the Ojibway author and journalist Richard Wagamese.

The Storyteller is currently in development and will be directed by Cree filmmaker Jules Arita Koostachin, who is also co-writing with Wabung Anung’s Jim Compton. The project will be pitched at the upcoming Indigenous Screen Summit at the Banff World Media Festival, according to a news release.

Compton will produce alongside Sea to Sky’s Shauna Hardy. Executive producers include Koostachin, Wabung Anung’s Compton, R. Todd Ivey and Jeremy Edwardes, Hardy and cinematographer Stephen Campanelli. Dennis Foon is the story consultant.

The documentary will be complemented by an interactive educational component and an audience and community impact engagement plan produced by Charlene SanJenko (Splatsin), an Indigenous storyteller and impact producer from the Splatsin Band of the Shuswap Nation.

The Storyteller will be shot in Ontario, B.C. and Saskatchewan. The documentary touches on the impact of intergenerational victims of residential schools and the Sixties Scoop on Indigenous peoples. It also focuses on Wagamese’s story as a self-educated storyteller and writer, as well as his childhood trauma, which resulted in PTSD and alcoholism, that he never overcame despite his literary success.

Wagamese wrote 18 books, including Indian Horse, which was made into a feature film in 2018. The film premiered at TIFF, played at more than 30 international film festivals, winning 19 awards and became the number one independent English language box office film of the year in Canada.

Koostachin said in a statement that “as an Indigenous filmmaker, child of a mother and relatives who endured residential school, and mother of four sons, I am deeply committed to healing by sharing Richard Wagamese’s story, and speaking the truth about how colonial violence has impacted our communities.”

Compton, who is a member of the Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan and one of founders of APTN, added: “It is a story of great struggle, battling demons in a world that only sought to destroy and conquer that way of life. It is now up to us to honour the accomplishments, the gifts, and the undying perseverance of a great man.”

Sea to Sky has also partnered with Wabung Anung and Grinding Halt Films on a feature film and series adaptation of Wagamese’s book Ragged Company. Both projects are in development.

Picture (L-R) Jules Arita Koostachin (photo by Karolina Turek), Richard Wagamese, Jim Compton (courtesy of Wabung Anung Films)