NZIFF review: The Last Dogs of Winter

Before the first New Zealand International Film Festival screening of The Last Dogs of Winter, director Costa Botes informed us that this event marks 30 years since the first showing of his work at NZIFF. The round of applause he received was hugely deserved. It ain't an easy road getting documentaries marketed and bought in New Zealand and internationally, and although most people may know Botes from the infamous 1995 hoax documentary Forgotten Silver, he is a prolific master of the form, covering subjects as diverse as depression, endangered species and jelly bean inventors.

In The Last Dogs of Winter, Botes follows Brian Ladoon, a self-confessed outsider in Churchill, a tiny town in the northern regions of Manitoba, Canada, who has devoted his time and energy — braving the elements and the constant presence of polar bears — to ensure the continuation of the rarest registered breed of dog in the world: the Canadian Eskimo Dog or Qimmiq.

It’s a controversial issue, this, as the methods that Ladoon employs to breed and protect the dogs patently do not have the support of all residents. Yet rather than focussing his documentary on these issues, Botes has clearly chosen to turn his story instead to the charismatic and complex figure of Ladoon himself.

The leather headband-wearing one-time hippy is a compelling subject, yet the personality whom I’m sure most New Zealanders will connect with is Caleb Ross, a former teen actor from Whangarei who found himself answering an obscure ad on a Toronto hostel message board, that read, “Come to Churchill. Breed Eskimo dogs. See polar bears”. Three years later Ross is still Ladoon’s right-hand man.

Botes treatment of this thoughtful, articulate and dedicated worker is beautifully subtle. Never revealing too much of Ross’ motivations for being there, he becomes a sort of antipodean enigma. Incredible canines, polar bears and making a valid ecological contribution aside, I still couldn’t help thinking about what had truly compelled him to stay in this hostile environment, throwing frozen poultry to these dogs from the back of a ute day in and day out, for so long. And as with all good art, your imagination runs wild.