A total of 26 of Mount Baker Secondary School’s classes signed up for an extremely special advanced screening of The Grizzlies, the new feature film that will premier at The Rockies Film Festival — already several months ahead of its official March 2019 release.
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The film is about Cranbrook lawyer Russ Sheppard’s experience moving to Kugluktuk, Nunavut, as a teacher and forming a lacrosse team which brought a desperately needed sense of pride and purpose to a community faced with one of the highest suicide rates in North America.
Sheppard, along with lacrosse coach Dave Little and player Kyle Aviak (played in the film by Booboo Stewart of Twilight and X-Men fame) were at Mount Baker, answering questions and meeting with students.
The Foods classes of MBSS catered the red-carpet event and the Film students helped out as well — truly a school-wide endeavour.
“It was really touching,” MBSS student Ariel Stuart said. “You never really see a movie based on a true story and you follow through the whole way and this one just really hit me.
“The last scene where Zach caught the ball and he was standing in his land, I fell back in my seat it was so touching. I was in tears, almost crying, it was really beautiful.”
Her appraisal of the film was echoed by her peer Emma Rea who said, “It was an amazing movie, I cried like five times, I would definitely recommend it to everyone.”
The Grizzlies will screen to an already sold-out audience on October 18, 2018.