Saskatchewan
by Richard Wiebe
Sixteen-millimeter footage and Edison Voicewriter recordings introduce to me a family I never knew. I see my dad, age 7 in 1943, stand in front of a movie camera. I see my grandparents, my aunt, my uncle, and others now gone. I was born in North Carolina, and decades later, but I imagine the movie we would make together about Saskatchewan.
**Sound Design is an instrumental aspect of this essay. Please play loud or with headphones**
Richard Wiebe is a filmmaker and PhD candidate in Film Studies at the University of Iowa where he teaches nonfiction filmmaking, screenwriting, film theory, and film sound. He is currently working on a dissertation and film project about Marine Corps watercolor painters and cinematographers during World War One. He is the cofounder and codirector of Works-in-Progress (WiP), a noncompetitive festival that programs unfinished work by artists working in virtually every medium.
Originally appeared in the online supplement to the Beyond Category issue 43.2 - 44.1