Sask. filmmakers showcase Indigenous ancestry in ‘strange but cool way’ in ‘Klee’

Two Saskatchewan filmmakers turned a bold idea into a 20-minute film now gaining attention national. Damian Smith has the story.

Two Saskatchewan filmmakers recently got to showcase their film “Klee,” at the Living Skies Student Film Festival.

In 2023, Gavin Baird and Jacob Farrell, both of Indigenous descent, found out about the imagineNATIVE Jeff Barnaby Grant, which would give $25,000 to five winners across Canada.

However, they only had one week to get a script and pitch together before the deadline.

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“We weren’t expecting it; it was great,” Farrell said. “It’s a great accomplishment getting the money to begin with.”

That script they came up with would end up becoming “Klee,” a 20-minute film about an alien that is sent to earth in the 19th century to “invade, seduce and terminate” a family of colonizers.

“I think we were both very interested in telling stories to reflect our ancestry,” Farrell said. “So, we’re really proud to do that through this film in a kind of a strange way, but a cool way I think.”

The pair said they also wanted to keep the film based around Saskatchewan.

“One reason would be to explore the history of the province and showcase the beauty that the province has to offer, but also to comment on the not-so-great stuff that happened in the past as well,” Baird said.

Baird, who is Métis, was the writer and director of the film and Farrell was the co-producer.

When the screening of “Klee” took place at the University of Regina on March 26, it felt like a throwback. Farrell is an alumnus of the University of Regina, and remembers Baird in workshops, dating back to 2018.

With the main trailer released last August, the pair has toured around their home province to showcase their craft. They’re headed to a number of film festivals to show their film in Nunavut, Yukon, Calgary, Toronto and Brazil.

For Baird, he’s taking in the moment, and is on the way to directing his next film.

“I’m still in the ‘hitting my head against the wall’ kind of stage,” he said.