Dennis Allen

An elderly Dene widower kills his abusive grandson in self-defence. Anticipating the worst, and weary of his dismal life, he summons an old friend to help him prepare for a journey to the spirit world. Meanwhile, a young Dene police officer, disillusioned by the current justice system and badgered by dreams of cultural genocide and the role of law, is caught between two worlds when he realizes the widower is guilty of the murder.

In Vancouver, Alex, from the Nisga’a Nation, talks about the abuse and violence that drove him to take his first drink. Paula, a Woodland Cree woman, started shooting up at age 11; soon, the only way to support her habit was as a sex worker. As a five-year-old girl, Desirae was put into foster care; now as an adult with her own kids, she struggles to break the generational cycle of addiction.

This feature-length documentary pays tribute to CBQM, the radio station that operates out of Fort McPherson, a small town about 150 km north of the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Northwest Territories. Through storytelling and old-time country music, filmmaker and long-time listener Dennis Allen crafts a nuanced portrait of the "Moccasin Telegraph," the radio station that is a pillar of local identity and pride in this lively northern Teetl'it Gwich'in community of 800 souls.