Party in the Parks

It’s June of 2010, and the sun is embarking on its daily rise above Gros Morne National Park in the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador. As the glow of its hidden rays begins to seep over Western Brook Pond, Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson prepares to film one member of his three-person musical team amidst a dark and looming fog, so low it only serves to make the single peak of Gros Morne Mountain more ominous against the still-dark sky. Without the sun’s presence, the landscape is intimidating and solemn — great and sombre, the literal meaning behind its name.

But unlike every other morning at Gros Morne, a birdsong is not the only melody accompanying the sunrise. One dawn awakens to the dark tune of Melissa Auf der Maur’s resounding bass. A second is scored to the off-kilter plucking of Montreal musician Sam Shalabi’s oud strings, while a third is loudly woken by the unrestrained, bluesy rock-and-roll echo of Catl frontman Jamie Fleming’s guitar. A score for the sunrise, something the Oscar-nominated Gunnarsson has never gotten the opportunity to capture as it unfolds — until now. 

As a participant of the National Parks Project (NPP), Gunnarsson, along with 51 of Canada’s other most talented filmmakers and musicians, was invited to experience one of 13 of Canada’s most diversely beautiful national parks. The project itself is a collection of films, music, television and online media developed by Parks Canada in partnership with FilmCAN, Primitive Entertainment and Discovery Canada. Created to celebrate Parks Canada’s

100th birthday and bring exposure to the parks, the NPP simultaneously aims to bring attention to some of Canada’s most recognized creative artists.

The new media project was originally inspired by the famous methods of the Group of Seven, who tried to better define Canadian art by visiting and painting some of the nation’s most stunning landscapes. In a similar style, the NPP sought to paint a picture of each one of the 13 selected parks, by sending a team composed of three musicians and one director to each location. Once there, each director was to create a film reflective of their own experience in the park, while also capturing the musicians as they produced a soundtrack inspired by the landscape.

Gunnarsson, who has directed such films as Beowulf & Grendel starring Gerard Butler and Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, was excited about the prospect of spending a week in Gros Morne — a park the Icelandic-born director says is just south of where his Viking ancestors first arrived. Deciding on his treatment for the film before the trip, Gunnarsson took advantage of the experience by shooting in a way often unfeasible for even the most seasoned of directors — at dawn.

“Being in this business, so often you find yourself driving to set at sunrise and go, ‘It’s such a stunning moment right now, why aren’t we filming?’” he says.

For Gunnarsson and his team, waking up every day at 3:15 a.m. to drive in the dark and hike inland to get to location was worth any inconvenience to be able to capture the rising sun.

“It’s a very magical moment... when the whole world comes alive. The birds begin to sing, you begin to feel the life around you, ambient light begins to appear, and then, the sun breaks the horizon and [there’s] something incredibly spiritual and moving about it,” says Gunnarsson.

The vision to shoot at dawn was one Gunnarsson was given complete freedom to bring to life and is a prime example, says NPP producer Ryan Noth, of why Canadian filmmakers were favoured for this creative project.

“We’re always trying to shine a light on cinema and media talent in the country,” says Noth. “Who better to ask to represent a vision of these natural spaces of Canada than filmmakers from the country?”

Noth, who is the co-president of FilmCAN NPP Films Inc., was also one of the originators of the NPP along with co-producers Joel McConvey and Geoff Morrison. While pitching a sitcom at a TV festival in Banff, Alta., Noth ran into a Parks Canada representative who was looking for someone to front a new media project, specifically aimed at reaching a more urban demographic.

“It didn’t necessarily have to push people to go to parks, as much as raise a profile and awareness of the parks through social media channels,” says Noth. “We kind of hatched this idea to take our favourite filmmakers and musicians to some of the best parks in the country to highlight them through the arts.”

Noth, McConvey and Morrison also convinced Discovery World HD to film a behind-the-scenes series of the project, to be aired in 13 30-minute episodes. Following Discovery’s agreement to come

aboard, the team organized the trips from May to October of 2010. Although initially concerned about the outcome of their experimental venture, Noth soon realized after witnessing the musicians’ desire to compose first-hand that the unconventional idea may actually pan out.

“The first day, the musicians are all so nervous and energized to do anything, but by the end of the first day or even the second day they’re just dying to make music,” he says.

Juno Award winner and Canadian folk singer Old Man Luedecke describes one of his favourite parts of the trip to Cape Breton Highlands National Park alongside musicians Tony Dekker and Daniela Gesundheit and director Keith Behrman.

“We had kind of a recording session where everybody that was on the trip was quiet in the background and the three of us plus Paul, the sound recorder, kind of got to work,” recalls Luedecke. “There was a nice magic in actually recording the songs in the woods.”

But the purpose for the NPP’s creation was not solely for the enjoyment of the participating artists. The concept behind recruiting some of Canada’s most recognized talent was, in fact, to draw the attention of young Canadians back to the sights and sounds of their own country.

“I think that one of the things that’s lacking in Canada is a mirror that reflects the country back to us, specifically in our cinemas and in movies,” says Noth. “We felt that we could bring a lot of interest and attention to the parks through some of the most amazing and talented musicians in this country and at the same time shine a light on some of them.”

Of the project’s relevance, Gunnarsson believes that the films ultimately speak to the attachment many Canadians have to the land over national mythology.

“We don’t even agree on what happened at the Plains of Abraham for God’s sake, but we all have this kind of deep attachment to places,” he says. “And in the back of our minds, in the back of our consciousnesses, it’s this sense of wilderness out there.”

It’s the final day of shooting in Gros Morne and Gunnarsson has brought Auf der Maur, Shalabi and Fleming to a remote area of the park. In a culmination of their individual journeys, the trio will finally unite their various musical styles to play together through sunset in the park.

They tune their instruments before Shalabi begins to pluck a quick rhythm that Fleming and Auf der Maur fall into so fluidly, it’s as though they’ve been playing together for years. Each instrument’s singular sound gives way to a combined melody, one that starts small, but rings out hopeful.

The sun is almost gone when the song is over and the group bundles their instruments back onto their boat. As it speeds away across the darkening water, they watch the sun illuminate the world for a few seconds longer, before it finally dips back below the horizon and Gros Morne becomes Great Sombre once more.

Discover the National Parks Project by visiting » nationalparksproject.ca to view the films and interactive website, iTunes or » lastgangentertainment.com to download tracks or purchase the soundtrack on vinyl, and » discoveryworldhd.ca to find air dates for the behind-the-scenes series. • 

Check out some music from the National Parks Project:
 

Photos Courtesy: Discovery World HD