I saw this short last month at the 2010 Palm Springs Festival of Native Film & Culture. From writer/director Helen Haig-Brown and based on a story told by her great uncle Henry Solomon. Set in 1961, a Chilcotin cowboy, Ahan (Edmund Lulua) is on horseback in the Chilcotin territory of British Columbia in western Canada and is hunting bear when he comes across a possible bear cave in the high country. He crawls in and exits through a portal that leads him to afterlife world of his ancestors. Luiz Almazon provides the simple but effective visual effects and edits the film. Randy Che's cinematography is beautiful. About 25 local members of the Tsilhqot'in Nation are cast as the inhabitants of the afterlife scene in the meadow. The film is shot in director Haig-Brown's native Tsilhqot'in language. The modern oral tradition story is like an urban legend but set in a rural wilderness. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.
