In the 1950s, Fredericton, New Brunswick plumber Ernie Clowater got a phone call that his brother Hedley had been arrested in Montreal for having sex with a man in a park.

He drove all the way to Quebec to get him out of jail, the only time he ever ended up leaving the province.

Ernie’s grandson Michael Clowater heard this story from his father, and used it as the inspiration for his debut feature film, entitled Drive Back Home, the gala feature presentation at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival on Sept. 19.

The primary shoot for Drive Back Home took place in the winter of 2023 in the North Bay, Bonfield and Mattawa areas. People might recognize landmarks such as the Valois Motel and the iconic wooden statues in Mattawa.

“It’s very much of a black sheep story in my family,” said Clowater. “I think if my grandfather were alive today, he would not be happy about this film. I think if my great uncle were alive today, I think he’d be tickled pink, and think it’s fantastic.

“These two men were jerks to each other their entire lives, but they were always in each other’s lives, and I always thought that was interesting. They had a really contentious relationship, but they were always there for each other.”

He said he thought the story was interesting because, at the time, gay men were often released from jail into the care of family members or employers, which ensured their lives were ruined.

Clowater said a friend of his who is a gay man also had an interesting observation, that there aren’t many period films about ordinary LGBT characters.

If you’re a young black person in 2024 and you want to know what life was like for ordinary black Canadians in the 1960s, you can ask your black grandparents. But if you’re gay, you don’t have gay grandparents to ask, said Clowater. 

Although the real-life events took place in the 1950s, the film is set in the winter of 1970. And while the trip itself is a true story, the events portrayed on that trip are made up.

The film starts Charlie Creed-Miles as Weldon, a blue-collar plumber from New Brunswick who has been forced to travel to Toronto to bail his estranged brother Perley (Alan Cumming) out of jail following his arrest for having sex with another man in a public park, and centres on their road trip back to New Brunswick.

Clowater works primarily in TV commercials, and it was through those connections that he was able to land Cumming and Creed-Miles, both British actors. They had to get dialect coaching to copy the accents of Clowater’s older cousins in order to do the film.

Cumming, known for his role in the TV series The Good Wife, did the movie for “an unbelievably small amount of money because he felt really passionate about it,” he said, adding that he considers him a valuable partner.

The director also took the 1963 Ford pickup used in the film (nicknamed “Bruce”) on the actual road trip depicted in the movie to get the appropriate b-roll. 

While Bruce broke down a lot during the original shoot, the vehicle had been properly serviced by a cousin who is a mechanic by the time they went on the road trip.

He remembers the shoot as being very cold, and because the film was low-budget, there was also a bare-bones crew. “It was a really tough shoot,” Clowater said.

“It was really difficult to make it, but it was my dream to make a feature film one day,” he added.

“I’ve never fought so much in my entire life, but at the end of the day, no matter what happens with film festivals, no matter what happens with the success it has, I’m proud of the film that it is. I’m proud of the job that a lot of people in the film did, and I’m glad it exists.”

That’s why he’s so glad the film will be screening at Cinéfest. 

“There were some people on the film that, despite how hard it was, worked so hard and really went so far above and beyond to help make this film that I’m excited that they’re able to go see it in the theatre,” he said.

Visit www.cinefest.com for further details on the festival, including ticket information and more.

Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.