Inuvik (July 25/03) - What was once just film footage sitting in a can has now become two new documentaries by an Inuvik filmmaker.

Dennis Allen took a camera along with a group of people from Colville Lake on a traditional walk from Colville Lake to Fort Good Hope.

For many years, people used a trade route to carry their winter furs to trade for staples in Fort Good Hope and return home. When air service came to Colville Lake, the annual walks ended.

Allen said the people wanted to record the path their ancestors took on the traditional route. An elder led the way for a group of young people along the historic path.

"They wanted to do it for the young people and for themselves, because it was a part of their culture that's been forgotten," Allen said.

The trip was done with pack dogs and a small paddling canoe.

"Along the way, they'd set a net to feed themselves and their dogs," he said.

Allen filmed the trip and later was invited to a traditional fall caribou hunt at Horton Lake.

For 10 days, Allen filmed the hunt that has gone on for as long as the people can remember.

The film from both trips sat dormant until Allen showed them to a friend in Vancouver.

"I made a VHS copy for (the people in Colville Lake) and the film just sat on a shelf until I moved to Vancouver," Allen said. "I showed my producer and he said, 'This is a great story, man. Why don't we do we do something with it?'"

The pair raised some money and flew back to Colville Lake, where they did some research and shot more footage.

More than just a record of a way of life that's slipping away, Allen feels there's a good message there for everyone.

"I think it's a good life lesson for all of us; to bring us down a notch or two,' Allen said.

"They want to get their own wood; they want to get their own water; they don't want running water or forced air heating," he said. "With that, they would just sit around with nothing to do and I think that's a good life lesson for all of us."

"We have all of these amenities and all of these luxuries that are just killing the environment and these people are just happy with what they have," Allen said.

The film documents the sense of community where people help each other through the daily rigours of a life on the land in a way that's been lost to most.

"It was important for me to show that because most people don't know that -- it was important for me, because I didn't know that," he said. "It really opened up my eyes to a lot of ills of the world."

Some say that development would bring jobs, but Allen says many are happy with the prosperity that they now have.

"It's a good life that they have and I wanted people to take a look at First Nations people and learn something from us," he said.

Allen and his producer are talking with some distributors about releasing the film to an international audience.

For more about the two films see Allen's Web site at:

www.mackenziedeltafilms.com