By Sarah Kurchak

Dir: Tanya Tagaq, Chelsea McMullan. Canada, 2022. There’s a common bit of praise you’ll see for a good concert film from fans and critics alike is that it feels just like being there. Or at least as close as you can get without being there. Ever Deadly takes you even closer.

Part of this incredible connection is a result of how the live footage is filmed. Tagaq welcomes her co-director and their camera fairly close to her personal space, and this access makes for some disarmingly intimate and intense footage. The first seven and a half minutes of the documentary capture the Polaris Music Prize and Juno-winning musician, author, and now filmmaker Tagaq and performance artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory “standing face to face, and it’s a friendly competition call and response” as Tagaq describes traditional Inuit throat singing in the next scene, in one extended closeup. Every breath, every subtle shift in expression is captured so beautifully. The concert that is woven throughout the rest of the film embraces similar shooting styles and fosters similar results.

But it goes even deeper than that. The personal footage that makes up the other half of Ever Deadly adds a whole new level to the viewing experience. In between the stunning pieces of performance footage, we see Tagaq reflect on a number of aspects of her life and work. We see her talk about the land and listen to the sound that shale makes when you step on it. We see her talk to her children and her mother. We see her mother talk about her own life, including how the Canadian government relocated her family, lied to them, and essentially left them for dead. We see Tagaq talk about hunting and environmental issues. We see her talk about the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada. And, each time the film returns to the stage, the viewer is given more context for the art they’re witnessing.

Ever Deadly does an amazing job of capturing how powerful Tagaq is on stage, but it also captures how her life, her family, her people, her activism, her humour, her anger, and her passion all come together in her art. It might not be a substitute for seeing her in person. She is one of the greatest live musical performers of our time. That’s always going to be something worth seeing, hearing, and feeling for yourself in person. But the film does offer a breathtaking companion piece to being there. 4/5 stars.