Jacob's Prayer : Loss & Resilience at Alkali Lake

In 1974 Lorne Dufour moved to Alkali Lake Reserve, a Shuswap community near Williams Lake in British Columbia, to help reopen the local elementary school. Like many First Nation communities across Canada, Alkali Lake had been ravaged by decades of residential schools and forced religion. Colonialism had robbed them of their language and culture and had left a legacy of abuse and alcoholism. But in 1972, Chief Andy Chelsea and his wife Phyllis took it upon themselves to lead their community on a long and painful road to sobriety and what ensued was a dramatic transformation of a people enslaved by a seemingly unstoppable plague. By 1985, Alkali Lake was almost a hundred percent dry and had become a role model for many other communities in BC. "Jacob''s Prayer" takes place during this time of transformation and it speaks to the unexpected existence of resiliency in the most unassuming of characters. It centres around one tragic Halloween evening in 1975 when two men lose their lives and another is saved by a friend who chooses not to be destroyed by his own tragedy and devastating loss. Jacob''s Prayer is the haunting and poetic story of a community''s suffering, loss and eventual healing.