The Slamdance Film Festival runs Digitally and In-Person from January 19th to January 28th.
Directors Stephan Peterson and Sonya Ballantyne’s documentary is probably one of the most important and meaningful documentaries about the art of pro wrestling ever released. It’s a movie just not about the love and sacrifice for the art form, but also a documentary about the marginalized and how more and more the indigenous community is quietly being pushed out off the edges of Canada and being transformed in to a sea of blank and forgotten people. Stephan Peterson and Sonya Ballantyne chronicle the weeks long tour across Manitoba known as “The Death Tour” where a group of pro wrestlers visit various indigenous and small communities in the dead of winter to perform for children and families.
Along the way the “Death Tour” takes an eventual toll on its performers, many of whom are either battling with their own personal demons, or at a literal crossroads in their lives. “The Death Tour” is a wrestling documentary through and through (featuring interviews with Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, respectively) but it’s a lot about the humanity of the sport and people behind it. The heart and soul of the film is Tony Condello, a renowned promoter who endures weeks’ long trips and has a no tolerance policy toward his wrestlers. Despite his big heart, he warns them at every turn that if they break any of his stern rules he will abandon them at a location, and leave them to fly home on their dime and at their peril.
This becomes an ever more harrowing guideline as the communities they visit become so much more remote, and a lot smaller than either of them anticipates. Along the way we meet the cavalcade of performers, many of whom have their own stories. One performer is struggling with whether he even cares enough about wrestling to continue the sport, especially after an accident with an opponent mid-match. Another female performer holds a deep passion for dogs and her family while traveling; all the while one of the few indigenous wrestlers in the troupe is still grieving the sad death of her small son years prior, and is eagerly trying to inspire the new generation of indigenous people with her performing and theatrics.
They all use wrestling as a means of coping, and are sadly forced to also witness how these indigenous communities are being ravaged by their own personal sadness, and grief. The finale even finds the group visiting a small village where an epidemic of suicides has had a stranglehold on their community, forcing them to even re-consider putting on a show. Through it all though “The Death Tour” is a riveting and engaging film that conveys a lot of relevant and very stark looks in to the struggles of pro-wrestling and the continued emergence of colonization in communities enduring sadness and death.