A documentary by filmmakers Tai Uhlmann and Theo Angell about the unique community in Lund created by a group of 1960s United States draft dodgers will be shown nationally on CBC starting in August.
“It happened very organically,” said Uhlmann of the process of getting The End of the Road on the national broadcaster. “A friend recommended us to a director/producer friend of hers, he loved our film and passed it onto CBC and it went right up the chain of command.”
Within a few weeks the film was approved, however, the 112-minute feature length needed to be condensed into a broadcast version of 44 minutes.
“We thought that would be a fun and interesting challenge,” said Uhlmann.
Over the next year she and husband and co-director/editor Angell proceeded to shorten the length of the film while preserving the integrity of the original story.
“Somehow we managed to keep the feeling, the humanity and the flow of it,” said Uhlmann.
The film looks at the community created by a group of young people who travelled Highway 101 until the literal end of the road in Lund, BC. Uhlmann is a child of this community.
As a young adult she moved to San Francisco and New York, returning to live in Lund with Angell and their child. Although the film documents the time of the Vietnam War in US history, the draw of opting out of American society remains prevalent in today’s political climate, said Uhlmann.
“I’m a dual citizen and lived half my life in the states,” she added. “I lived through George W. Bush getting elected and people wanted to leave and go back to Canada and now with Trump even moreso.”
However, making the film helped her realize what a true leap of faith her parents and others took coming to the BC wilderness and reinventing themselves.
“I didn’t quite understand until I started making the film how brave it was and what it took to leave everything behind and come to the middle of the bush with no skills as far as living off the land,” she said. “They were well educated and political, but it took a real bravery, spirit and persistence.”
A viewing party of the CBC premiere broadcast will take place at the Lund Pub starting at 5 pm on August 4.
