Documentary revisits Manitoba town’s darkest moment

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This article was published 08/12/2023 (1003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the most violent nights in the history of the southern Manitoba town of Altona is revisited in a new documentary from the Affolters, four film-making brothers from British Columbia.

Altona, which just won the top documentary prize at the Whistler International Film Festival, takes viewers back to Nov. 17, 1990, when two teenage boys answered a knock at the door — a decision that, by some accounts, changed the town forever.

“This is Altona,” a town councillor told reporters as the resulting murder trial began. “This type of thing isn’t supposed to happen here.”

It took more than a decade for the Affolters — Jon, Nathan, Heath and Thomas — and the rest of their crew to assemble the film, which developed into an unpredictable narrative centred on ideas of trauma, recovery and the challenges of forgiveness.

The details of the story are graphic: Curtis Klassen and Tyler Pelke, two teenage classmates and hockey teammates, were hanging out on a weekend night when they opened the door to an older teen, dressed in black and carrying a duffle bag.

What happened next was gruesome and haunting: Klassen, 15, was murdered; Pelke, 14, had his throat slit and was set on fire, crawling out of his burning home to a neighbour’s doorstep to scribble out a handwritten explanation.

“Earl Giesbrecht kill my friend and did this to me. Get doctor,” he wrote, scrawling out the name of the teen who was later convicted of first-degree and attempted murder, and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The first time Heath Affolter heard the story was in 2011; he was sitting in a church in Vancouver, aghast and gripped by every twist and turn. He might not have believed what he was hearing had the speaker not been Pelke, who survived the attack and went on to become both a decorated firefighter and sought-after inspirational speaker.

“I think filmmakers have a tendency to look at the world in terms of stories, and here was one that had all the elements of the stories (my) brothers and I try to put on screen,” Affolter wrote in an email. “It was interesting, intense and complex, and while it delved into topics that were dark, heavy and sad, it was ultimately a story of hope and inspiration.”

In 2020, the filmmakers travelled to Altona, a predominantly Mennonite farming community of about 4,000 close to the U.S. border, to conduct interviews with family members and friends of Klassen and Pelke. They recognized the ways the decades-old tragedy still reverberated, adding urgency to the project, which was at first a profile of Pelke but became a more well-rounded docu-drama.

“We really wanted to try and honour everyone that was involved in this film. All the families, and Curtis himself, who obviously no longer has a chance to sit down and do an interview because he was taken from us far too young,” Thomas Affolter says. “That was a burden we were very conscious of, and we really tried to come at this from a place of integrity and respect in terms of telling the story the right way.”

That process included reaching out to the victims’ mothers, both of whom agreed to appear on camera.

It was all about gaining trust. With Curtis’s mother, the filmmakers “reassured her that this wasn’t going to be some kind of exploitative, violence-first retelling,” Thomas Affolter says.

Shortly thereafter, Milly Klassen sat down for an interview. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that interview, and how incredibly moved we all were by her courage and bravery,” he says.

As outsiders, originally from Slocan Park, B.C., the Affolters wanted to include as many viewpoints and voices as possible, to honour the victims and their survivors. Some potential interviewees declined; others agreed quickly. But most required time to process and prepare.

Thomas Affolter says the filmmakers are grateful to the people of Altona who took time to speak with them about such difficult subject matter.

“With any (crime-based) documentary, you’re sitting down with people and asking them to tell you about the worst day of their lives. You film it, and then you go off and edit it together. You can’t help but reopen these wounds,” he says. “It’s not a fun process. It’s not an enjoyable aspect of documentary filmmaking at all.”

While mostly relying on current and archival interviews from family members and friends of Klassen’s and Pelke’s, along with 2D animation recreating the more violent moments, the film also includes a written statement from Giesbrecht, who was released on parole in 2020 after displaying model behaviour while incarcerated.

At first, Giesbrecht didn’t show any interest in participating, says executive producer Craig Langdon, but the filmmakers knew it was worth trying.

Though the vast majority of Altona is told by those affected by the violence, “it became clear that if we’re really going to tell a human story that explores all the perspectives of trauma, we have to try and explore the perspectives of the perpetrator as well,” says Langdon.

Eventually, he was able to co-ordinate a meeting with Giesbrecht. “A five-minute cup of coffee turned into a three-hour meal,” he says. “I came to the table with a fresh set of eyes, and I think he saw that I wasn’t seeing him for the event that everyone describes him from. I was just seeing the person I saw in front of me that day.”

Giesbrecht declined an invitation to appear on camera, but instead wrote a statement that is read by an actor in the final segment of the film. It’s a challenging moment, certain to be divisive, but it’s also arguably the most compelling stretch in the documentary’s 94-minute runtime.

The filmmakers say the response to the film has been positive so far, but they know their documentary is by no means an easy watch, even if it is imbued with ideals of forgiveness and centred on pathways to restorative justice.

“It’s a story that’s universally relatable, with themes of trauma, recovery and trying to move past something that’s harrowing and heinous to ultimately get to a place of reconciliation,” says Thomas Affolter. “I think those stories are always topical and relevant.”

Altona is available to screen at whistlerfilmfestival.com through Dec. 17 for $15 plus tax.