Festival REGARD presents the filmmakers of the Canadian Grand Prize Competition. Joe Buffalo directed by Amar Chebib, is one of them and was screened within the program 1 of the official competition.
REGARD : How did both of you meet and at what point did you decide to make a film together?
Joe Buffalo: I was in Montreal back in 2005. I don't remember much of those years because I was just off the seat of my pants, just not grounded. We met back at a skate spot called Peace Park. He had approached me in 2019 after I got my commemorative board with Colonialism Skateboards to my great descendant, Chief Pîhtokahanapiwiyin. He reached out, and we went to breakfast, and it took off from there.
Amar Chebib: I met him in 2005 through skateboarding in Montreal. Then I left and pursued film, and it wasn't until 2019 where I heard about him turning pro, and that's when I learned that he was a residential school survivor for the first time. I reached out to him, and we just started hanging out and talking about his life and his story. I had in mind that it could be. It was a powerful story because of all the obstacles he's overcome to get where he is. That was like the leap, the history behind making the film itself or the idea to make the film.
REGARD : You could have taken this in many different directions. How early in the process had you decided on the film's structure?
Amar: It was pretty clear early on. We started with lots of conversations. Joe's a co-writer on the film as well. We talked about his life a lot, and then I would take some notes and then show it to him. We would go back and forth on what felt right and what we wanted to talk about and not talk about [in the film]. The structure of the film itself was pretty clearly laid out from the beginning. It's told in a more or less linear way, we open with [Joe] in the present day, talking about his life, but then we go back to the origins, and from there on out, it's pretty linear.
I started recording audio-only interviews, casual conversations together in my living room. From that, I edited the interview bed for the whole film. Then I showed that to Joe and got his input; we made a few tweaks here and there. And once we were happy with that, we started shooting. We came up with the visual treatment for the film in collaboration with our cinematographer.
Style-wise, I wanted to do something that pushed into a narrative direction and kind of leaning into these different languages of music and skate videos. It's a hybrid film in that way, and Joe's also an emerging actor. He's been in several successful films that have been to TIFF. We leaned in on that, and his acting experience brought a whole other dimension to the film.
What Joe brings as an actor is that he's just natural and vulnerable, like he has a certain fluency. I'll let him speak more about that.
Joe: I was chosen for acting; I didn't go looking for it. In the Cree culture, we believe in reincarnation. My full name is Joe Dion Buffalo; that's my great-grandfather's name. In 1958, he did a western in Spain with Jayne Mansfield, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. So, he has an IMDB as well as I do. I didn't know that at first. He was the first native to go overseas actually to play a native. Before that, it was whites portraying us. In my culture, just like you're your great aunt or someone else. We all have history embedded in our DNA. Before I got sober, I got all these opportunities to do film, but I didn't take it for face value and took it for granted. I was blind. It took having to sober up to see clearly to grasp life and what this reality is.
Growing up, my way of settling things was just to run away. My dad ran away, and I got abandonment issues. By sobering up, it just added strength to my voice. And now I look at film, and I take it a lot more seriously.
REGARD : Can you talk about skate video culture and the impact it has on the film?
Amar: I got into filmmaking through skateboarding as well. That's how I first met Joe. We were talking about peace park, and I was filming skateboarding with my friends. There are many skateboarders and skate filmers that have gone into film as well, obviously really well-known people like Spike Jonze. We should talk about Liam [Mitchell] as well, our cinematographer. He's both an accomplished skate filmer but also a really talented cinematographer. Joe and him knew each other longer than I knew him, like 26 years or something.
I feel like us three getting together was like a synergy as far as fluency in film and skateboarding. I think skateboarding teaches us how to be scrappy and do things in innovative, different ways. We had no money when we started shooting this film, and we just managed. We are a pretty small crew with very little money. It teaches you how to be down to look at things from different creative perspectives.
REGARD : A lot of people are connecting with the film, and there's a good balance delving into your darkest periods but also finding that hope. How did you find hope to go on?
Joe: When I was actively in my addiction, I already knew what the problem was, but I wasn't taking action. It was just these patterns, these loops, that I was in. I wasn't learning the lessons I needed. Then it just hit me. I was back and forth in really bad situations. My ancestors had my back for a long time, but I didn't want to take any more chances. Once I was able to can the booze, it only took a little while for me to be calm and focused. It took a lot of highway to break old patterns. It wasn't easy, and toxicity keeps rearing its ugly head once in a while, but they're just tests, and as long as I keep passing these tests, the creator is going to continue blessing me. I have to keep it 100 and surround myself with good people.
REGARD : The film also uses skateboarding as a kind of generational bridge, connecting communities and generations through the shared love of skating. Can you discuss how that works within the film?
Joe: I started an organization called Nations Skate Youth. I just wanted to be able to give back with something I never had growing up. I couldn't go to older guys to ask them questions, and my dad wasn't around. Who was going to teach me about things like the birds and the bees? I was just a kid trying to figure it out. [The older kids] would sometimes give me a little bit of compassion, help me out, but then they would turn around and do something to break me down. I never was able to trust them. Living on a reserve, the older kids had cars, and that meant they could see different spots [to skate], and I had to earn that spot. As much as they loved me, I was also a target. I couldn't go to them with questions or for help without being shot down.
I had to figure things out on my own. I want to give back in the sense that I help catch them before the bad guys do and show them the avenues that skateboarding can give you. It's a worldwide movement, and it's been going on since the caveman days.
Amar: That's also how we got some of the younger skateboarders in the film itself. Joe put out a call-out on Facebook, and all these kids responded wanting to do it.
Joe: We promised 20 bucks a head, and just like that, it was pretty easy. They were actually interested. There was one there just because his mom wanted him to be there, but you could tell he was trying by the end. By having his friend encourage him, he started to get it. That's the vibe we want.
Amar: And Quinton [George] was like a ripper already, the guy who plays a teenage Joe. We filmed with him in many different spots skateboarding and went with him to the decommissioned residential school.
REGARD : What are your future projects?
Joe: I was just shooting a feature with a cousin of mine, Cody Lightning. It's an indigenous comedy. Also, I'm doing a tour with Red Bull Canada. It's across Canada, but I'm opting in from Regina to Calgary.
Amar: I direct commercials and branded content; there are always projects like that floating around. I'm also working on another project that is similarly themed in some ways to Joe Buffalo. We're potentially developing that as a feature documentary, but there's a lot of unknown right now, so I can't say too much at this point.
We're really just looking at Joe Buffalo and the ways we can maximize those opportunities. Several distributors have approached us about preparing the film online, and we have a couple of exciting new developments with some well-known skateboards attached to push the film. We've thought about taking the film on tour and doing something cool with Joe's non-profit and maybe travel around, screen the film, and have skate demos.