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AMBER

By Gonick NOAM , Jordan BRUYERE

True Story - Pre-Production 2021

Jordan Bruyere is on set, directing a film about his own kidnapping, using cinema to clear his name. When a second boy was lured off his family farm, the media depicted Jordan as an accomplice and the prairie’s first Amber Alert sounded.

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- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- True Story, Documentary, Biography
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-CANADA
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Gonick NOAM , Jordan BRUYERE
- Writer(s)
- Joy KEEPER, Noam GONICK, Onalee AMES
- Cast
- Brad FAIRBAIRN, Aidan RITCHIE, Rachel SEENIE, Dave BOULANGER , Logan CRERAN
- Producer(s)
- Juliette HAGOPIAN (JULIJETTE INC.), Noam GONICK (WILD BOARS OF MANITOBA)
- Synopsis
- Jordan Bruyere (26, Indigenous) is directing a film about having been kidnapped as an adolescent. As the saga unfolds, he reworks the dramatization as he grapples with the ways movies misinterpret real events. The film cuts between filmed drama and behind the scenes footage, beginning with Jordan watching an actor portray his 14 year-old self at a riverbank bonfire party.
  
  Peter Whitmore, 35, a recidivist child abuser, drifts into town and befriends Clarky (Jordan’s stepdad) 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. On the highway, Clarky gets ditched at a roadside diner. As a director, Jordan rewinds the action and the scene is replayed with Clarky being paid-off.
  
  Pete’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. The director interjects and re-stages the scene as he remembers it: Peter threatening 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. Jordan - a little older and strung out - meets Clarky, assaults him and then hitchhikes out East to start a new family. Skyler is seen a few years later - visibly aged, still on the prairie. Whitmore festers alone in jail. Jordan hopes he can forgive both his transgressor and himself to put it all behind him.