It is a combination of /'s as Deadline is reporting that Sierra/Affinity, a sales company under Entertainment One, have come on board Slash/Back, an Indigenous Canadian and female-led genre film from writer/director/producer Nyla Innuksuk.
Pic will follow Maika and her ragtag group of friends who discover an alien invasion in their tiny arctic hamlet. It’s up to them to fight back using makeshift weapons and their horror movie knowledge.
Slash/Back was presented as a proof of concept this week at Cannes in the Frontieres Platform in Cannes program. The film was first presented at the Frontieres co-pro in Montreal last Summer where it garnered some excitement from our own Josh Hurtado.
The idea of putting Nunavut girls on screen as badass heroes who save their home from aliens intent on destruction is an incredibly starting poi(n)t for a new vision... This unique landscape, coupled with a story that evokes the same tone as Attack the Block, could be a breath of fresh air in the genre world.
Slash/Back then went on to Helsinki for Frontieres' Finance & Packaging Forum in February.
Daniel Bekerman (The Witch) and Ethan Lazar (Scythia Films), Alex Ordanis & Christopher Yurkovich (Stellar Citizens) will produce along with Innuksuk (Mixtape VR) who also scripted the movie with Ryan Cavan.
It is an exciting time for Canadian genre film as many of our Indigenous peoples are putting their spins on genre cinema. Innuksuk's film is gathering steam. Jeff Barnaby is in post on his zombie flick Blood Quantum. Canadian production comapanies have hosted short film competitions only for First Nations filmmakers resulting in some cool content. Our country (like how many others?) has long neglected the voices our indigenous peoples and if genre cinema is one way to make them heard we at Screen Anarchy gladly welcome it.
Mixtape VR is an indigenous-owned and female-run Canadian production company. Red Marrow Media is a 100% Inuit-owned outfit based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and was co-founded by Stacey Aglok MacDonald.
Sierra/Affinity have already started shopping Slash/Back at Marche du Film.