BEFORE THE CUT
A drifter. A carver. A shed full of second chances.
(Also looking for a graphic designer to create an actual poster :-)
After his estranged father dies, a reckless young Haida man leaves Craig, Alaska, for Hydaburg, where he finds an unexpected sense of purpose working alongside an older carver. As he becomes part of the community, he begins to see his father—and himself—in a different light, forcing him to decide what parts of his past he will carry forward.
Feature screenplay:
Written by Wáats'asdíyei Joe Yates
Haida story
Set in Southeast Alaska
Status: seeking production / development
Before the Cut needs to be made because it tells an Indigenous story without making culture the subject of the story. At its center is a young man trying to understand his father, his community, and himself. The Haida world is not presented as an educational backdrop or an issue to be explained to an outside audience. It is simply where these people live, work, argue, grieve, laugh, and find their way forward.
The film is also about inheritance in a way that reaches beyond family. Matty is afraid of becoming his father, yet discovers that separating himself from his past is not the same as understanding it. Through carving and his relationship with Skil, he begins to see that what we inherit is not always something we have to accept unchanged. Sometimes it is something we have to examine, repair, and decide how to carry forward.
There are relatively few feature films that allow Southeast Alaska and Haida community life to exist on screen with this kind of intimacy. Before the Cut offers an opportunity to tell a distinctly Haida story while making a universal film about fathers and sons, grief, belonging, and the choices that shape who we become.