TORONTO - Quebec-born director Yves Simoneau recalls a particularly poignant moment last year when he finished the Alberta shoot for the TV movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," which garnered an astounding 17 Emmy nominations on Thursday.
"At the end, on the last day, after I call 'wrap,' extras gathered around me, like a hundred people, just to show that they were happy to be part of it," Simoneau recalled Thursday in a telephone interview from Quebec's Eastern Townships where he lives. "They were not there as extras, they were there to really tell the story. And it shows in the movie."
Evidently, Emmy voters agreed.
The HBO movie, which stars Winnipeg-raised Adam Beach and Winnipeg-born Anna Paquin and features hundreds of First Nations people from southern Alberta, was the most nominated production Thursday, followed by acclaimed mob drama "The Sopranos," which garnered 15 nods.
Simoneau was recognized for his direction while Paquin earned a supporting actress nod. Montreal-born actor August Schellenberg is also up for a supporting acting trophy.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," based on Dee Brown's non-fiction bestseller, chronicles the Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn and the events leading up to the assassination of Sitting Bull and the Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890.
Beach, who shot to acclaim last year in Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers," stars as Charles Eastman, a college-educated Sioux doctor who grapples with his assimilation. His love interest is a schoolteacher played by Paquin, who won a supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1993 film "The Piano."
Simoneau said his phone didn't stop ringing Thursday as he chatted with actors in the film and fielded calls of congratulations.
The spirit on the set, he recalled, was "unique."
"Very amazing," he said. "People worked with a lot of passion and dedication. It was all about the subject, all about the movie."
"It was a very, very complicated film to direct and to produce and to put together. We all felt that the subject was very, very important and it fuelled us all the way through."
Reached in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, Schellenberg -- whose other credits include "Black Robe" and "Free Willy" -- had high praise for his director.
"He was so sensitive and gentle in the way he tackled the subject matter," said Schellenberg, who plays Sitting Bull in the movie.
Both Schellenberg and Simoneau hope that the Emmy nominations bring a larger audience to "Wounded Knee."
In Canada, the Movie Network's MFest plans to repeat the movie on Sept. 15 at 9 p.m. ET, the day before the Emmy Awards. It first aired on HBO in May, and in Canada on the Movie Network and Movie Central.
Dick Wolf, executive producer of "Wounded Knee," told The Associated Press that the slew of nominations validates a very difficult project.
"Anybody who says it's not nice or it doesn't mean anything to get this many nominations, it's the ultimate sour grapes because it sure feels great," he said.
