A local Indigenous filmmaker is having his film Smudge the Blades open the 40th Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF). The film premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where it was critically acclaimed and won the Best Canadian Discovery Award, an accolade given to the best first or second feature film by an emerging Canadian director. While the film has been a success, the achievement is joined with grief for Edmonton director Cody Lightning whose mother died just days before the TIFF premiere. “My mom showed me every single thing about this industry,” said Lightning. “It’s just so heartbreaking … To be put on these platforms that I am, because of her, it just means so much. I’d be nothing without her.” Georgina Lightning, a film director, screenwriter and actor from Samson Cree First Nation, died on Sept. 5 in an equestrian accident during a rodeo in Enoch. She was the first North American Indigenous woman to direct a major feature film with the 2008 supernatural thriller Older than America. In his TIFF award acceptance speech, Lightning dedicated Smudge the Blades to his mother. “I know that she’s very, very proud of this work,” Lightning told reporters in Toronto, adding that Georgina spent a lot of time on set during the filming of Smudge the Blades. Smudge the Blades was filmed in Edmonton and stars Ed Helms of The Office and The Hangover fame, alongside Paulina Alexis of Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Jana Schmieding who both starred in the television series Reservation Dogs. The film centres around the all-Indigenous youth hockey team the Treaty 6 Blades, coached by Helms. When the underdog team gets kicked out of their league, the local arena’s Zamboni driver, played by Lightning, takes them under his wing. Lightning says the film is an homage to the kids he has coached over the years. “I’ve coached so many of our kids and I did the best that I could, even when I wasn’t feeling the best, I was still there for them, and you’ll see that in the film,” said Lightning. “It’s not a celebration of me. It’s a celebration of them.” EIFF’s artistic director Vincent Brulott booked Smudge the Blades before it won big at TIFF. “We’re really thrilled to be sharing Cody’s newest vision,” said Brulott. “We love films that can represent Edmonton and Edmonton filmmakers … It’s our 40th year so we wanted something truly special, and as the people at TIFF found out, and as the people will find out in Edmonton, Cody’s film is something truly special.” Other films in EIFF’s lineup include Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut and Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid as well as the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord. To mark the festival’s 40th year, EIFF is showing 40 feature films on top of more than 100 short films over its 10-day stretch at Landmark Cinema City Centre and Metro Cinema. Tickets can be found online, with some still available for Tuesday’s showing of Smudge the Blades. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa and The Canadian Press
