40 Acres is a post-apocalyptic drama about family and survival. It had its U.S. debut screening at South By SouthWest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas on March 10th, 2025.
We subsequently had a chance to talk with Director R. T. Thorne, and actors Michael Greyeyes and Leenah Robinson.
HNMAG: The character Hailey Freeman is American. She was a Marine and she escaped up to Canada. Then she met your character in Canada?
Michael Greyeyes: Actually they met in States. The backstory is that Hailey’s father is estranged. He has the family’s generational farm up in Canada but she was raised by her mother in America.
HNMAG: So she was dual.
R.T. Thorne: The backstory history is that she got pregnant in the U.S. and then her mother fell ill. She accompanied her mother up to Canada to reconnect with the father. Manny was born on the farm at that time. Then a civil war broke out in the U.S.
Michael Greyeyes: Then she left Manny as a little boy to fight in the conflict in the States. She has a history with my character, Galen. He was part of the Canadian military that went to aid. They fought together on one of the many tours that they had done down there. Their relationship formed in the conflict.
HNMAG: A question about the title 40 Acres. Forty acres and a mule was a broken promise during the Civil War. What is the connection to the title and that historic broken promise to the US slaves?
R.T. Thorne: Hailey’s Great ancestor traveled to Canada through the underground railroad where slavery had been abolished before it was in the US. When the Civil War ended, many formerly enslaved peoples were promised to have receive acreage and compensation but that promise was rescinded by the government. So Canada is where her ancestors claimed their family’s 40 Acres.
HNMAG: That makes sense. From the political climate, it seems like this movie is not set too far in the future. It’s a little dystopian.
R.T. Thorne: Yeah, there’s a reason that we didn’t focus on a lot of technology. I wanted it to feel like you’re actually not sure if this is like three years or ten years from now.
HNMAG: Leenah, how did you get involved in the project?
Leenah Robinson: I was sent an audition in August 2023.
HNMAG: Are you from Toronto?
Leenah Robinson: Northern BC. I live in Vancouver now.
HNMAG: Great. How long have you been performing?
Leenah Robinson: About six years now. So it’s been a fun ride. This is easily one of my favorite projects I’ve ever done. It’s really great to do something that’s important and Canadian.
HNMAG: You get to shoot a gun too.
Leenah Robinson: That was exciting, a lot of guns, yeah, that’s a big part of it.
HNMAG: Michael, were you involved earlier than that in the project?
Michael Greyeyes: Yeah, a little bit earlier. In the spring. Alan, my agent sent me a script and he said, you better read this one. I read it and I thought this was really fun. I really want to do this. Then I was on another show and a bit of time went on. There was a delay due to the SAG strike. I was asking about 40 Acres because it was one of my favourite scripts.
R.T. Thorne: Michael was asking me about the production. I told him, you don’t understand. I had you as part of this project without your knowledge for five years. When writing I come from a visual place. I need to see the people, then I see their lives. I had his picture as Galen the whole time I was writing.
HNMAG: Michael, something else that you’ve done was a dramatized documentary about Tecumseh.
Michael Greyeyes: Oh yes. American Experience for PBS. But when you talked about forty acres and a mule, that was one of my initial thoughts as I went through the script. Black history, and Indigenous history, intersect in constant ways. Dispossession, broken promises, the larger picture is they overlap. In a Venn diagram, they’re on top of each other.
R.T. Thorne: That was such a key thing when I was writing the story. I wanted to make a story where a family is defending themselves and fighting for survival. We’ve seen those apocalyptic stories before. There are lots of them and I love the genre, it’s fun to see, but I’ve never seen this particular family, a blended, black and indigenous family. They’re fighting together, where our history is totally intertwined. So much of what’s happened to our people is similar. Our two communities have been the target of systematic eradication over hundreds of years, so I wanted to know what does a family that blends these cultures do to survive? They do it through the preservation of culture. They do it through the preservation of language. They do it through the preservation of history, and food, and through music. Those are all major components of the actual story in this film.
HNMAG: What’s your history? Were you raised in Toronto?
R.T. Thorne: I was born out west. I was born in Calgary, and then my mother and father split, and I came out to Toronto when I was about ten. I’ve been a Toronto kid ever since. I started a career in music videos. I did music videos for a long time… for about a decade. Music has been a big influence. It was like a trap door into film. I always loved film. Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is the one that cracked my head open. It made me realize that you can say more with film than just entertain. You can entertain, but you can actually challenge, reflect and inspire as well.
HNMAG: The topicality of 40 Acres is amazing.
Michael Greyeyes: America is steering itself straight into our film.
HNMAG: What is the backstory of Canadian and US troops fighting together? Why would that happen unless we were in Afghanistan or something?
Michael Greyeyes: In this story, we were fighting in Detroit. We were fighting in Atlanta, and right now with the way the discourse is, that’s not insane. We might actually be fighting against each other.
HNMAG: Elbows up.
R.T. Thorne: The world is realigning with 40 Acres. All of a sudden, it’s not dystopia. It’s not far from an imagined place.
HNMAG: Are we turning the page with setting movies in Canada?
R.T. Thorne: I feel like we are. I feel like there’s a lot of great talent in Canada, and I think there’s always been a lot of great talent in Canada, but the doors are opening wider in the space and the world is very aware of what Canada can offer.
40 Acres is a very entertaining and compelling movie with a lot of action and drama. It’s never dull, but it also has a lot to say about fighting for your family, culture, and way of life. R.T. Thorne is a passionate and experienced filmmaker and writer with a very clear vision. Michael Greyeyes is also a very experienced and talented artist in his own right who has a very impressive resume. Leenah Robinson is also a very talented actor with a bright future. Look for 40 Acres in a theatre soon. There has never been a better time to support Canadian Cinema. 40 Acres will be in theatres in North America on July the 4th.
