Allen set to roll
Herd star to wield his own camera

Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 11/99) - Filmmaker Dennis Allen, sitting across from me, brims over with barely disguised excitement.

Funding he's needed has finally come through for his project -- a film about an elderly Dene widower who kills his abusive son in self-defence -- and the time for action, literally, has finally come.

A Better Place is also about a Dene police officer who is sympathetic to the old man.

"The Dene officer is also having these dreams about cultural genocide at the turn of the century and how the law played a part in it," adds Allen.

"So he sees himself, as a police officer, contributing to the cultural genocide of his people."

The 45-minute film script is a beautiful read. Though I am under orders not to divulge details prematurely, I can say that the long hours of rewrites -- Allen estimates over a dozen rewrites -- have resulted in a tight, evocative story.

"I first started writing this script, I think it was in 1996. In '96 I submitted it to a script competition here in Yellowknife. It was a territory-wide competition and I won it. Then I entered it again to the Northwestel Cable Fund and I got that money."

Allen, who was last seen in a starring role in the much-touted film The Herd, has also received funds from the NWT Arts Council, Heritage Canada, the NWT Department of Justice, and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. He is also currently awaiting a response from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The road to this moment of knowing the film is a go was sometimes disheartening.

"You work three, four days on a proposal and you send it in and they say 'Well, it's a good story, but we don't have the money.'"

Yet Allen -- who also plays guitar and intends to stretch his creative energy across artistic disciplines -- also maintains that it was a good learning experience.

"I'm glad I did it," he says.

Auditions will take place July 3 -- a call will go out between now and then. There are several key Aboriginal roles and many extra roles.

"And there's a half dozen roles where we'll be looking for non-Aboriginal people," Allen says.

One role so far has been cast.

"Ben Nind is helping me story-edit, and he is helping me cast and workshop the script and he's also one of the lead characters."

Locations, which Allen is now in the process of scouting, will be mostly in and around Dettah.

Filming is scheduled to begin in August.