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Jeremy Torrie says this is a difficult time for feature filmmakers, but that hasn’t stopped the Ojibway filmmaker from nearing completion of shooting his latest feature, Path of Souls.

Despite the financial uncertainties of making an independent feature film, Torrie has forged ahead with conviction and taken his cast and crew all over North America and such Manitoba locales as Seven Sisters, Bannock Point and Fort Alexander to tell the story.

Torrie, who also wrote the film, describes it as P.S. I Love You meets Donnie Darko. He recently spoke with On Screen Manitoba’s Trevor Suffield on a rare day off to talk about how the shooting is going and the path to get it to this point.

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How is filming going so far?

It’s been, obviously, pretty frenetic. It’s been a real challenge because we’ve had to travel in and out of town every day. We’re losing two hours a day for our shooting, so what we’re doing is really only getting to shoot page counts in eight hours or less. So it’s a real challenge. But the good thing is we have two cameras so we’re shooting as much as we can, side-by-side.

Has this hurried shooting schedule forced you to rethink the way you shoot?

You have to be thinking on your feet. There’s stuff where we lose a quarter page of dialogue here, and it was an already long-running script, but that’s something that we’ve obviously had to do in certain instances. We shoot what we can and basically we are getting the scenes.

Jeremy (in straw hat) with his crew on location

How is the footage looking?

There are some unbelievable images. We’re shooting everything backlit, against the sun as much as we can and that’s resulted in some nice stuff. And of course we’re using our RED Epic-M cameras and what they have is HD-RX. That’s a special technology that RED has developed that allows you to shoot up to six extra stops of dynamic range. What that does is allow you to shoot things a lot more like film because you’ve got that much more dynamic range in your shots. It makes a huge difference. With this all of a sudden you’ve got detail in clouds. It’s a really, really useful tool and allows us to shoot a little more freely.

Will this technology change the way you make your films in the future?

Of course. We got it partly because of the technology, partly because its 5K resolution, and partly its because its so tiny. We’ve got two with a third one coming that will allow us to shoot 3D. We’ve got a 3D feature as our next one called, Glimmer, which is an Ontario co-production and that’s with Amy Smart.

Jeremy and Cory Sevier

What are some of the struggles you’ve faced along the way to get this made?

We had Telefilm say that it was the most profound thing they read, but they didn’t give us any money because they felt it read like a documentary. I just said I’m trying to satisfy two things here: I’m trying to tell a native story and the way we tell stories is different than the traditional feature film narrative. It’s not a three-act structure. When you’re meeting with Elders it’s not going to be a sound-bite and one page of dialogue, it might be five or six pages and that’s the way it is. So I’m trying to satisfy both camps in honouring the teachings, but at the same time delivering a product that is entertaining and informative and hopefully people will want to watch again and again because they’re finding more and more in each layer. It’s got a very shocking ending with a twist to it, and it’s there for a reason, not shock value.

When did you know this film would actually be made?

I first took this to Elder Dave Courchene Jr. at Christmas and he read it and thought it was the right time to do this story, because it’s intelligent and it takes a certain type of conciousness and awareness to deal with spirituality, to deal with Quantum physics and to deal with traditional medicine. I think that whatever we have put out there into the universe, it’s rewarding us for our hard work.

Has anything in the shoot surprised you so far?

We ended up casting Laura Harris (Defying Gravity, Dead Like Me) and she is the star, it’s her story. And she’s been really, really good. She knows the character so well. And that’s been a great thing because if we don’t have a character our audience can empathize with and feel, then you don’t have a movie.

Jeremy and Laura Harris

Even bigger than that was Adam Beach. What he’s able to bring to set and the performance and how he tunes in and he just gets it and nails it. He had a couple of instances where he had to do a few takes because he just couldn’t find it. But literally, he’d come in, get ready, we’d be rolling then Bam! First or second take and he got it and you just go, wow.

He was doing one scene where he teared up and it made me cry. It was just so unbelievable that he could do that. And that’s something that I don’t think people have been able to see him do with a character. Adam loves the film and can’t wait for it come out. It was nice to be able to show a different side of him.

What does it mean to have Adam in your film?

Having him attached to the picture has an impact. With people I’d been chasing with a script and getting them to commit, all of a sudden once we get Adam, they now know it’s real. Notwithstanding that we have Lorne Cardinal and Gary Farmer, well-known experienced actors, that should also speak for itself.

Adam Beach and Laura Harris

When did you know this film would actually be made?

I first took this to Elder Dave Courchene Jr. at Christmas and he read it and thought it was the right time to do this story, because it’s intelligent and it takes a certain type of conciousness and awareness to deal with spirituality, to deal with Quantum physics and to deal with traditional medicine. I think that whatever we have put out there into the universe, it’s rewarding us for our hard work.

What’s the timeline for the rest of the film?

We’re assembling it now. The idea is if Sundance accepts a late entry from us, who knows? There’s a Native American component to the whole festival and I am an alumni of the program so you never know. However there’s other festivals. There’s Cannes, Tribeca, Venice and a lot of high profile festivals that I think realistically we can compete in. I would like to think we’ll be in a festival before TIFF, I mean that’s a year away now. I want it in Walmart and I would be happy to have it on the air at this time next year, but who knows? If a distributor happens to like it and decide to roll it out later, then we’ll have to talk about it.

Any final thoughts?

When you start making a film you have the perfect idea in your head of how it’s going to turn out and what its going to look like, and some things might not be as good was what you imagined on the page or in your mind. But at the same time, there’s something magical about seeing these characters come to life and create this world and hopefully audiences are going to be intrigued by it too.

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Torrie has also created a Indie GoGo account to allow for donations to assist with post-production. For different contribution levels, items your donation will get you include a signed script, a DVD of the film and an invitation to attend the World Premiere.

Visit here for information on how to contribute and here for the official website.