Released in 2018, SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna (Edge of the Knife) is a supernatural horror movie co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown. The first feature-length film to be made exclusively in the Haida language, the movie centres on Adiits’ii, a young man accidently responsible for the death of his friend’s son. Consumed with grief, he flees into the forest where strange entities wait, pulling him further and further into madness.
They say a fire calls you into the forest. The cold will make you desperate for fire. But no matter how long you run, you cannot catch the fire. You run and run until your mind is sick and spirits take over you. You become wild. You become Gaagiixid.
The film’s soundtrack was composed by Canadian multidisciplinary artist Kinnie Starr, who received a nomination for the Leo Award for the work, which is now being released by Aporia Records. Recording in indie rock, hip hop, art-pop, folk, EDM, spoken word and other genres, Starr defies categorisation, and the eerie, loaded ambient tone of the soundtrack shows another dimension to her work.
As highlighted by the single ‘They Found Me’, the score simmers with latent energy, utilising silence and space to underscore both the haunting and harrowing moods of the film. The result is pervasive and sinister, the subtle washes of sound haunted with things ancient and volatile, drawing the listener into the dark and never promising what they might find within.
Kinnie Starr says that working on the soundtrack not only provided the opportunity to “empower the narrative of the film,” but to also work on her own healing process. “I was managing a brain injury during composition,” she explains. “The guttural moans and dark melodies apply to the film, but, like all art-making, reflect outwards, in this case into the nuanced nature of brain injuries, and of trauma, and of trying finding balance in an imbalanced world.”
SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna is out on the 6th November via Aporia Records.
