Unnatural & Accidental (2006)

Director:

Carl Bessai

Writers:

Marie Clements (play)
Marie Clements (screenplay)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Unnatural & Accidental is the feature length dramatic film adaptation of the stage play entitled, The...

Plot Keywords:

Skid Row | Older Woman Nude | Systemic Racism | Native Canadian | Drunken Sex

Awards:

6 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Tantoo Cardinal	...	Aunt Shadie / Rita
Na'Ku'Set Shepherd	...	Young Native Girl
Tinsel Korey	...	Blue Girl
Michelle Thrush	...	Pink Girl
Sophie Merasty	...	Orange Girl
Trina Sxwithul'Txw	...	Red Girl
Quelemia Sparrow	...	Purple Girl
Carmen Moore	...	Rebecca
Campbell Lane	...	Rebecca's Father
Mathew Walker	...	Priest
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Norman
Stuart Pierre	...	Josh
JR Bourne	...	Pathologist
Michael St. John Smith	...	Coroner
Stefan Arngrim	...	Hotel Clerk

Runtime:

Canada:90 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Raven West Films Ltd.

Movie Connections:

References "Leave It to Beaver" (1957)

A true story serves as the basic plot

I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. It's a dramatized film version of Marie Clements' stage play The Unnatural and Accidental Woman. The term comes from the official cause of death being unnatural and accidental referring to the deaths of 10 native Canadian women on Vancouver's east side in the 1980's from acute alcohol poisoning. The women were known heavy drinkers of skid row and it was assumed they had died from self-induced over indulgence until it was learned that a common acquaintance of them had been seen with them before their deaths. In the actual story, career criminal Gilbert Paul Jordan was a former barber who was an alcoholic and craved alcoholic sex with hookers. He would get them drunk until they passed out and have sex with them and continue to pour alcohol down their throats. Jordan is depicted here as a mechanic. In this dramatization of the core of that story the film has the daughter of one of the victims going into the skid row district to search for her long missing mother and with the help of the spirits of the victims she is driven to find her mother or the killer. This is a fictionalized account of the story and may seem far-fetched but truth can be stranger than fiction which led Clements to write the play. Carl Bessai directs with good performances from Carmen Moore, Callum Keith Rennie and Tantoo Cardinal. This is a good film and may be worth checking out. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10.