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AMBER

By Noam GONICK

Crime - Post-Production 2025

Accused of collaborating with his kidnapper, a 14 year-old boy was never truly rescued... his grownup troubles had just begun.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Documentary
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Noam GONICK
- Cast
- Quinn GREENE, Brad FAIRBAIRN
- Producer(s)
- Juliette HAGOPIAN (julijette inc.)
- Synopsis
- Amber tells the story of a double kidnapping and an Amber alert used to protect one child, while another’s predicament was ignored. The lingering effects of being accused of collaborating with one’s kidnapper results in a reveal that threatens to eclipse the narrative. Working alongside the actual individuals whose life stories are dramatized, the film documents their journey with the actors portraying them.
  
  We begin the drama chronologically with the Indigenous Bruyere at age 14 on a Winnipeg riverbank. Peter Whitmore, 35, a recidivist child abuser, drifts into town and befriends Clarky (Jordan’s step dad) while working at a scrapyard. Clarky invites him over for dinner, where he meets Jordan. Peter entangles into their lives - more interested in Jordan than his coworker. Peter suggests they all take a road trip. Shortly after being on the highway, Clarky is left at a roadside diner - perhaps paid off by Whitmore to have Bruyere to himself.
  
  Peter’s sinister motivations become obvious - spending the night at a campsite, he shows Jordan explicit home videos. The next morning Peter instructs him how to shave, and threatens the Bruyere family’s safety should he not comply with Peter’s schemes.
  
  Jordan’s mother has contacted the authorities about her missing son. Police dismiss the case as non-urgent. Peter commands Jordan to pretend to be his son and insists he needs a playmate. They stop at a family farm where they meet 10 year-old Skyler. The boys play in the nearby marsh - Peter follows, spiriting Skyler away to an abandoned farm. The child is made to believe he’s being beta-tested for a role-playing game. Jordan tries to escape and steals Peter’s van, but maroons it in a field instead.
  
  With the white farm boy abducted, authorities trigger an Amber Alert - a manhunt is underway. Upon discovery, Skyler is given to the police while Jordan remains in the house with Peter. There is a long standoff. The building is tear gassed and the two are taken into custody; Jordan interrogated. The media draws false conclusions that Jordan is an accomplice rather than a victim.
  
  Jordan is exonerated and tries to return to his normal life, but the trauma lingers. Peter tries to castrate himself in prison. Skyler is seen a few years later - visibly aged, still on the prairie. Whitmore festers alone in jail.
  
  At this point we disclose in documentary verité that during the film’s production, the adult Jordan Bruyere was arrested and charged with multiple assaults on women in the “Red River Groper” case. The actor portraying Jordan visits him in jail on his 30th birthday.
  
  We revert back to drama to see Jordan - now in his ‘20s and strung out - meeting Clarky and assaulting him on a bus. He then hitchhikes out East to start a new family. The reenactments catch up to the current moment as Jordan wanders the city’s neighbourhoods, presumably searching free libraries boxes at night for books on acting technique to share with the cast.
- Partners & financing
- Manitoba Tax Credit (Canada)
  Federal Tax Credit (Canada)
  Manitoba Arts Council (Canada)
- Beginning of shooting
- Aug 01, 2021
- End of shooting
- Dec 22, 2023