The new comedy “Canoe Dig It” hits the screen at Homer’s Porcupine Theater this Wednesday, kicking off a three-city Alaska tour.
The mockumentary follows a group of eccentric competitors heading to a regional freestyle canoeing championship in northern Maine, all vying for the title of "Top Paddler." Samuel Dunning wrote, directed, and stars as Leonard, one of the primary competitors.
Dunning was born in Brunswick, Maine. He’s spent most of his career as an actor, appearing in television series like “Blue Bloods” and over 50 other projects. Before this feature, he directed a horror-comedy short called “Rick and Ruby.”
He discovered freestyle canoeing in 2020 during a stay in Maine, when a friend showed him a video of a canoeist performing to Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red."
“I was just immediately enamored with this sport slash like performance art thing, whatever you want to call it, and I just couldn't believe that for one it existed, and for two that no one has done anything with this like a mockumentary or really anything,” Dunning said.
The film began with a fully written script, unlike some mockumentaries that rely entirely on improvisation. Dunning had actors perform scripted takes first, then gave them freedom to improvise on later passes, often keeping those unscripted moments in the final cut.
He said the finished film plays every joke straight, drawing deadpan inspiration from classics like “Best in Show.”
“I really wanted the movie to feel like at any given time you weren't 100% sure if a joke was happening or not,” Dunning said. “This should be something that's-it's more funny just watching people interact with each other and just general human awkwardness than anything else.”
The canoeist in the video that first inspired Dunning was Mark Ornstein, who ended up joining the production as an actor and Dunning’s body double. Ornstein and his wife, Molly Gurian, also open the film with an introduction to the sport.
Dunning said the hyper-specific Maine setting hasn't held back audiences elsewhere.
“Everybody's been to a small town before. Everybody knows what somebody who gets obsessed with a niche sport or hobby or whatever it is, is like and how that can bring out very interesting characters and types of people. And so, yes, there's a lot of stuff in the movie that's hyper specific, and you might not know the references that are being made, but you know exactly the type of people that are talking, like you've met all of these people before,” Dunning said.
Dunning said the Homer screening came together through a personal connection. A friend of his mother reached out about the Porcupine Theater, giving him his first occasion to visit Alaska.
Dunning will attend the Homer screening for a post-show Q&A before continuing to Anchorage's Bear Tooth Theatre Pub and Juneau's Goldtown Theater. The Porcupine Theater will screen “Canoe Dig It” Wednesday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m.
