page_title: Edge of the Knife
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: Edge of the Knife / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: Tsuga heterophylla forest, Windy Bay, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada
context_page_description: Edge of the Knife is a 2018 Canadian drama film co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown. It is the first feature film spoken only in the Haida language. Set in 19th-century Haida Gwaii, it tells the classic Haida story of a traumatized and stranded man transformed into Gaagiixiid, the wildman.
  With input from Haida Gwaii residents, the screenplay was written in 2015 by Gwaai and Jaalen Edenshaw, Graham Richard, and Leonie Sandercock with an aim to preserve and teach Haida, an endangered language. Contributors to the film's budget of C$1,890,000 included the Council of the Haida Nation, the Canada Media Fund, and Telefilm Canada. The film was created primarily by indigenous people, including the co-directors, a mostly amateur crew, and the Haida cast. In 2017, the actors were taught to speak Haida at a two-week training camp and throughout the five weeks of filming.
  First shown on 1 September 2018 to residents of Haida Gwaii, who the film's creators said were the primary audience, Edge of the Knife made its public premiere six days later at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, which named the film in its annual Canada's Top Ten list.
context_section_description: None of the starring actors could hold a conversation in Haida before joining the film. In April 2017, the all-Haida cast gathered for two weeks to learn lines and the pronunciation of Haida words. Workshops included voice coaching and acting lessons. Each day after language activities together, actors would break into small groups, sometimes individually, to be instructed by fluent speakers. After a week of language training, the actors had most of their lines memorized. The actor training cost a total of C$100,000; producer Frantz said he considered dubbing difficult lines in post-production.
  Filming was planned to begin in June 2017 in Yan, a former Haida village on the Masset Inlet coast. Few crew members were professionals, and most of the cast had no previous acting experience. A longhouse was constructed for the set, and local Haida people provided costumes and traditional, hand-poked chest tattoos of family crests. Though the clans featured in Edge of the Knife are fictional, the crest tattoos that actors received were based on their respective real-life identities. Women produced traditional costumes by weaving red cedar.
  In the week of 23 May 2017, the 23 actors and 35 crew members commenced production, and the cast and crew camped out in Yan during the five weeks of filming. The few Haida-fluent actors improvised several lines. Many actors regularly rehearsed in the center camp's dining tent. During the recording process, actors continued improving their pronunciation of Haida words with the assistance of fluent speakers. Elder Haida also provided counsel for the design of cultural elements like costumes and sets. Edenshaw said jokingly, "I'm the boss unless the elders say otherwise." One actor, Erica Ryan-Gagne, said the elders were "the heartbeat, the backbone" of the production, which needed to "harness their knowledge and give them the floor".
  The crew brought people, cameras, and equipment to Yan by boat; rain and wind interrupted several shoots. During filming, the crew paid particular attention to avoiding anachronisms like evidence of deer and logging, which had not been introduced to Haida Gwaii in the 1800s. The entire film was shot on the island. Two weeks into filming, Gwaai Edenshaw and Frantz scouted a wooded location near Port Clements to find the tree for the "key sequence" in the film when the Gaagiixiid, played by Tyler York, leaves society and builds a home.
  One actress in Edge of the Knife was then 73-year-old Sphenia Jones, who went through the residential school system. She had not spoken Haida since she was a teenager. "It feels so good [to speak Haida]," she said, "mainly because I can say it out loud without being afraid." While on set, Haida musician Vern Williams sang and played a drum to create songs for Edge of the Knife. Filming was scheduled to end on 2 July.
caption: Edge of the Knife was filmed and set on Haida Gwaii.
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