Though Clearwater is considered geographically isolated from populated regions of the world, this small community is an epicenter of creative expression and product.
Another proof of such is “Henry and the Wolf Doctor,” a movie/seven part episodic series that was shot entirely in Clearwater during April, in which 60 per cent of the talent in front of and behind camera was from Clearwater or adjoining communities.
The film is a drama based on the published novels of the same title in which a hyper-independent First Nations young woman who recently got her veterinary degree after clawing her way out of an abusive/self-destructive past gets trapped into working for an old, pathologically-paternalistic white sawbones redneck animal doc with a mysterious past.
The story takes place in a town filled with colorfully-eccentric (and at times dysfunctional) rugged individualists who finally unite against very real ‘ghosts’ from the young veterinarian's and the old animal doc’s pasts.
The film was produced by novelist/writer MJ Politis and Glen Pickering. It is very much based in real life experiences with regard to how people deal with animals, each other, and themselves. The first veterinary-setting story with edge, heart, intellect, and humor in a dog’s age, or perhaps longer.
Some of the participants on the project are experienced masters of their craft, while others discovered previously-untapped talents inside of them for the first time.
Support from local merchants and medical professionals in the area also made this endeavor possible.
On the tails of doing Wolf Doctor, there are multiple other projects now in advanced development/pre-production in which people from our community are in the center of it all, rather than merely service staff.
The first public screening of “Henry and the Wolf Doctor” will be at the Blackpool Community Hall on Saturday, Aug. 8. Doors will open at 6 p.m., showing of the film will be at 7 p.m. Refreshments available, admission free.