Brittany Hobson
APTN News Saturday
A new documentary chronicling the life of iconic Aboriginal musician Errol Ranville is debuting in Winnipeg at a local film festival.
The Last Ride documents Ranville’s career that has spanned decades.
As frontman of the country rock group C-Weed Bans the musician has released 19 albums and has received two lifetime achievement awards including one from the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.
“The documentary is the story of my life but they’ve picked, of course, a very dramatic portion of my life where a deadly car accident happened,” Ranville told APTN News at an event promoting the documentary.
“But they cover a lot of my life leading up to that- my music career and then carry on after the accident.”
In 2010 Ranville’s life was forever altered after he was involved in a deadly car crash.
He was the lone survivor. Five others were killed including his wife, Marcie Ranville, who was in the car with him.
Ranville was driving along a highway near The Pas, Manitoba when he collided with another car. Four teenagers were in the other car. None of them survived.
Ranville spent more than two months in the hospital recovering from his injuries.
He was charged with careless driving – but the charges were eventually stayed.
Rick Skene, the director of the documentary, says the film examines larger forces in Ranville’s life.
“I was wondering where is the story? What is it?” said Skene. “It became a story of love, family, and community. And of the amazing power of music to heal.”
Ranville says he spent the better part of the year after the crash in a deep depression. His journey of healing began when he picked up a guitar and a pen.
“I started writing all the songs for [the album] Forever and just getting back to writing again I knew that I was whole again. I was functioning and I was ok,” he said.
The film recently debuted at the Edmonton International Film Festival where it won best Canadian documentary short.
The film is premiering in Winnipeg as part of the Gimme Some Truth film festival.
The crew behind the film hope to turn the 15-minute piece into a full-length documentary.
“We’d like to press forward and do a feature-length version of this story because it really deserves it,” said producer of the film Gary Zubeck. “So much of the interesting parts of Errol’s life aren’t even in the 15 minutes.”
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