The Last Trapper

This is not a work of fiction, nor is it a documentary. The Last Trapper is a film intended to draw spectators into the world of a real-life character by showing him experience?and sometimes re-enact?various moments and selected episodes of his life.

A camera crew followed Norman and his companion, a Nahanni woman, along their trap line, filming them as they built their log cabin, hunted and fished. The crew virtually lived with them, shooting on-the-spot footage that ultimately formed the film?s context, giving it a uniqueness and power all its own. Norman and Nebaska take us into an exceptional realm where words are no match for the forceful blizzard gusts, where the layer of ice crystals coating their faces is so thick they are unable to speak... We are plunged into a primal world to undertake a journey of initiation and come into contact with a way of thinking that links the sacred to the euphoric.

The crew spent an entire year in the bush with Norman, working to capture the real-life moments when he played his best role: himself.

To round out the film?s narrative, re-enactments of some of the most compelling events in Norman?s life have been added. The purpose of the following synopsis is to describe some of these scenes and the way they are interconnected. They make up the film?s underlying structure and basic storyline, the framework that allows the rest the sequences to fall into place naturally.