Guitar Lessons
by Aaron James + starring Corb Lund • Kaden Noskiye • Conway Kootenay
SUNDAY JANUARY 29TH, 2023, 1:00PM • NANCY APPLEBY THEATRE Athabasca • LIMITED SEATING
PAY BY DONATION (money raised will go to filmmaker and to offset theatre rental costs)
*celebrating the birthday of neighbours and friends Mike MacLean, Charlie DeShane + Lori Claerhout (me!)
—> Do you already know for sure that you wouldn’t miss this for anything? Skip the rest of this page and immediately
RSVP “I’ll be there!” and the number of your party in this email.
Guitar Lessons: the movie
GUITAR LESSONS is the story of a 15-year-old Metis boy who inherits a guitar from a father he never knew and sets out to find someone in his town to teach him to play it. CORB LUND plays Ray Mitchell, an oilfield contractor who lives alone in the big house on the edge of town–rumour is that back in the day, Ray used to be something of a rock star. The kid starts bugging Ray for guitar lessons, and Ray keeps telling the kid to buzz off. Eventually the guitar lessons commence, and the story becomes that of a 15-year-old Metis boy and a 50-year-old oilfield contractor, from different sides of the tracks, learning to grow up together over guitar lessons.
Singer songwriter Corb Lund plays a former musician in the Metis community of Paddle Prairie, whose life takes a turn when he meets a boy adrift in Guitar Lessons. It’s a thoughtful film peppered with characters worthy of exploration from writer-director Aaron James, 4 kernels of popcorn out of 5.
Todd James, Global TV
Corb is a natural... he just is so at home with this camera. And this young boy is very good. What I really like about this movie are all the supporting characters. Oh wow! You get some really wild people in this town... yes, it’s really worth seeing.
Louis B. Hobson, CTV
That time Aaron James taught in Wabasca + thought up the movie story
“The story was written from an experience James had while working as a substitute teacher in Wabasca, Alberta. Wabasca is a small Cree community that became short of teachers early in the pandemic. A friend remembered that James had an education degree and invited him to teach for a couple of months.
A mischievous student found out James was a musician and started carrying a guitar and asking him for lessons.
’So I wrote a little story about this random kid asking for guitar lessons, and that’s what turned into the movie,’ James laughed.”
Read the whole Moose Jaw Today article.
Small community support
In Spring 2021, in the small town of High Level, Alberta (near the NWT border), a conversation started around the possibility of making a local movie to showcase the culture in a region that no one seems to know about. The mayor, a Métis woman, reached out to local director Aaron James and actor/filmmaker Kat Winter who hails from the nearby Little Red River Cree Nation. Aaron shared the screenplay for Guitar Lessons; the Community fell in love with the project and raised money locally to turn it into a reality.
Official trailer for Guitar Lessons
Writer/ Director Aaron James on Global Saskatoon
Are you in? Please join us!
You can make a pay-what-you-like donation here (by credit card or PayPal) or drop some bills in a bucket on the day. If dollars are tight right now, please forget I said anything about money: just be there on Sunday, January 29th before 1pm and find yourself a seat. It means the world that you’d come and join us! Just let us know that you’ll be there so we can save you a spot.
RSVP “I’ll be there!” and the number of your party in this email.
Birthday viewing of Guitar Lessons Donation (pay what you like)
Birthday viewing of Guitar Lessons Donation (pay what you like)
Come and watch Guitar Lessons in Athabasca with my birthday twins, Mike MacLean and Charlie DeShane. You’re welcome to join us for the fun of it! And we’re also collecting donations to help to offset the cost of the theatre rental and appropriately honour (in dollars) the work of writer/ director Aaron James. If you were thinking of sending a card or buying any one of us a coffee or lunch (or more) for our birthdays, would you consider a donation to our event?
Notes: You don’t have to pay a thing to come watch Guitar Lessons with birthday kids Mike MacLean, Charlie DeShane, and me. Just let us know that you’re coming so we can save you a seat!
If you were hoping to donate more than $5 to our movie party (to our writer/ director and theatre rental) you can change that amount by selecting whatever number of items you’d like. For example, to send $20 our way, select 4. (Because 4 x $5 = $20 Yay Mr. Lerohl and Grade four math!)
If you can’t come, but would still like to send a little donation our way, you can do it here.
Nathan Loitz of Athabasca’s Back Alley Book Nook is also helping to promote the event. In twinnie Mike MacLean’s words—”Just a reminder: Athabasca, population 3,000, has a bookstore and that is thanks to Nathan. Visit The Back Alley Book Nook for all your literary needs.”