Bury Me in the Back Forty

For a decade now, Kyler Zeleny has been documenting his hometown, a rural community on the Canadian Prairies, in Western Canada, with deep Ukrainian roots that comprises around 850 people. Through photographs, collected objects, community archives, and hidden histories, Zeleny juxtaposes his investigations with the community’s history book from the year 1980. ‘Bury Me in the Back Forty’ therefore serves as a pluralistic history of the community and embraces both official and unofficial accounts of events in its past. Zeleny’s sensitive portrayal encapsulates the collective virtues and vices found at the heart of any complex place on the verge of disappearing.