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Actor, writer, singer/songwriter Ernesto Griffith grew up in some what of a fairy tale setting, full of castles and rolling hillsides in Surrey, England. At the age of 11, he found himself living in the drastically different prairie landscape of Brandon, Manitoba.

It was this massive change in environment that started to shape Griffith’s storytelling skills during his formative teen years. Exploration of the stranger in a strange land theme led him to the story of Billy Beal.

Beal was a black pioneer who moved from Minnesota to Swan River, Manitoba in 1906. He served on the Board of School Trustees in Swan River for 37 years; started the first library in Swan River; developed a literary society and built the first radio in Swan River – Just a few of his many accomplishments.

Griffith and Winston Moxam co-wrote and co-produced the feature film, Billy, which depicts the life of this amazing man. In the film Griffith plays the role of Billy from his late 20’s until the age of 94. He also served as 2nd unit director with Moxam directing. The film has received rave reviews across North America, was awarded the Human Rights Commitment award and most recently won Best Narrative Feature Film at the Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival.

Earlier this week, Griffith spoke with On Screen Manitoba’s Trevor Suffieldabout how Billy has changed his life.

Q: How did you first hear about Billy Beal?

A: When we first moved to Brandon, I hardly ever saw any black people, so I asked some kids where are the black people. That’s when they said they had heard about this old guy, Billy, up in The Pas. I kind of thought, that’s weird, why would a black guy move to The Pas? Because I thought it was crazy for my family to move to Brandon at the time.

Many years later I started hearing stories about this guy Billy Beal and that he started a school and a library, and was a photographer and I thought that sounds interesting. So then, I wasn’t an actor at the time, but I said I wanted to play this guy so I started writing this small 10-minute script.
Years later I was talking with Winston Moxam about doing a project and he knew about Billy Beal, and I did to, so he said lets write about him and we did.

Q: What kind of response has the film received?

A: Amazing! When I was in Montreal, people were actually blown away because the budget was so low. I mean it is low budget but it doesn’t look low budget, so people couldn’t believe we made it look so good with so little money. And they were blown away by the acting and most people don’t realize that I’m the older version of Billy as well. And people are actually thanking us for showing a bit of history that is very rarely spoken of or documented.

Q: Do you feel it was destiny for you to play Billy and share his story?

A: I would have to say it was because of all the information I would find out about him. I’d be at home one day and someone would tell me ‘oh yeah I heard about this guy Billy’ and start telling me information about him, I just happened to be at home sick that day.

Certainly information kept coming up, but when I was ready to give up, all of a sudden I would meet somebody or get a phone call or an email out of the blue and say ‘hey, I heard you were doing this movie, and I know somebody that knew Billy!’
I think it was meant to be.

Q: Have you ever been mistaken for Billy?

A: When I was in Montreal, people were calling me Billy, and I was looking behind me and realized they meant me. And people were saying the movie was excellent and amazing. Even today, I was in the mall and somebody says ‘are you Billy?’ and I said yeah, how do you know? She goes I saw you at the film festival and you were excellent. I wasn’t expecting this. When you do a movie you kind of think that somebody will like it, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: My new company is doing a documentary on the real Billy Beal. I’m also in the process of raising funds to have a plaque placed in Swan River for Billy Beal since he contributed so much to the Swan River Valley area. And if I can’t raise the funds then I’ll pay for it myself because I feel it’s that important.

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Griffith noted that Billy was completed with funding and support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Film & Music, National Film Board of Canada, Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Film Group, ACTRA and Telefilm Canada.

He added that the cast and crew, featuring Blu Mankuma, Bob Huculak, Sarah Constible, Gord Tanner, Ardith Boxall, Harry Nelken, Jon Ted Wynne, Susan Kelso and the entire Skene family were instrumental in the film’s success.

Billy will be screening at the Garrick Theatre on Friday evening at 7 p.m. as part of the Human Rights Film Festival, and will play at Cinematheque this summer.