LAKE VERMILION — Like most art, films can be deeply personal. For Ojibwe filmmaker Ginew Benton, the short film Ghost Lake is rooted in the personal.
Ghost Lake is set on a reservation in Northern Minnesota and follows an Ojibwe hunter and a tribal police officer as they uncover a drug smuggling operation after the overdose death of a young boy. As the investigation unfolds, the story turns toward grief and accountability.
Benton, too, has experienced the loss of friends and family to fentanyl-laced drugs. After years of thinking about it, he said he finally felt like it was the right time to make a film facing this issue head-on.
Benton told Area Voices on the KAXE Morning Show that he decided to apply for the Vision Maker Media Grant to begin the project. The stated mission of Vision Maker Media is to empower and engage Native people to share stories. Usually, Benton makes films using money from his own pocket, so when he received the grant, it was a new experience for him.
“It's different when you're playing with somebody else's money and you have to get the ball rolling ... instead of just taking your time and doing it leisurely with friends and family.”
To get started, he reached out to Ryan Bajan, who Benton met at the Ely Film Festival. Bajan is the director of the nonprofit Waawaate Programs, and Benton needed to team up with a nonprofit to receive the grant money. Together, they built a team to begin the production.
The script of Ghost Lake was originally 28 pages with explosions and big battle sequences, until a producer on the project, Jacob White, informed Benton the budget wouldn’t allow for them. This forced Benton to limit the script to 17 pages and still maintain the essence and meaning of the story.
Filming begins Friday, May 8, on the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa’s Lake Vermilion Reservation and stars an Indigenous-led cast including Gary Farmer (Reservation Dogs, Dead Man), Che Jim and Renee Boehm. Benton is excited to begin.
“It's probably the first time I've created a film where everybody got it immediately. The team that I have is so fine-tuned with the story and the theme and the feeling. They're so on board that my job has really been easy, and it's just been saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to everybody, and there hasn't been a lot of 'nos.'”
In college, Benton studied theater and really enjoyed it, and he made some short films during that time. After he started a family, he stepped away from filmmaking until 2015.
He’s made a few short films including Looking Glass, Mirror Man and The Dim. Even with that kind of film experience, he said he still gets a little nervous on the first day of filming.
“But it's like any other person that really loves their art. They sit down and they learn how to do it, and then you get so thrusted into your own art that you really don't have time to be nervous.”
While the film does have grant funding, there’s still a need for additional funding to help improve the quality of the project. Donations are being accepted at WaaWaate Programs website to help pay for gaps in the production budget. Benton will also keep the film’s Facebook and Instagram pages up to date on the progress of the film.
Benton has advice for aspiring filmmakers: “Always keep going, and be very serious about your passion and your love for what it is that you do ... and when that opportunity comes to the door and comes knocking, you want to be prepared and know that the universe is looking out for you.”
Listen to the full conversation with Benton to hear more about the Ghost Lake production and his history with film by clicking above.
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
