Mennonite film showcases history
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Where the Cottonwoods Grow, a film about Mennonites previewed at the Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) on the August long weekend during Pioneer Days.
The film explores what Mennonites went through to establish themselves in Manitoba.
Dale Hildebrand, the director for the film lives in Toronto, but grew up in Halbstadt. He previewed around half of the film a few times in MHV’s auditorium. The packed room of viewers asked questions to the director and filmmakers about the film itself, and why it was made in the first place.
Hildebrand said filming and planning took about two years, with a lot of it done in Manitoba. Scenes were filmed at MHV, in Neubergthal, and in fields just outside of Stuartburn.
Computer generated and AI-related technology was done in Toronto. Unreal Engine, a software program that emulates real-life scenes was used for aerial shots of what towns used to look like and to show part of the overseas journey Mennonites took. The program was also used for some scenes with people, creating some issues.
“We’re building a lot of those elements at the same time, and because the film’s not finished, a lot of those elements need to be redone, and it’s a tight tight budget,” Hildebrand said. “We’re trying to deliver a million times more than what the budget can afford,”
“We’re trying to bring in elements that hopefully work, some of them don’t work and we have to replace them, and so it’s a variety of mixtures and mediums to convey a feel.”
One thing that Hildebrand says does work is how the film starts, with women quilting and making patches. The story goes back and forth to the women quilting with different patches prominently featured.
“Each patch that they make is symbolic of each chapter in the film, and by the end of the film we’ve made a complete quilt and we’ve told our story,” Hildebrand said.
People who got a chance to watch the film at MHV still haven’t seen most of it, with 48 minutes of unused footage being saved for the premiere on Oct. 4, at the University of Winnipeg.
He said he got the idea for the film after working on different movies during his career. Hildebrand worked on a similar story with Italians because of his wife, and she thought he should do one on his heritage, Mennonites.