Deaner ’89 has party machine Murdoch in a flash back to high school in 1989 when, as a hockey star in a blue-collar steel town in Manitoba, his life is turned upside down when he learns of his recently deceased birth father’s Mtis heritage, or mixed indigenous and European ancestry. Murdoch starts listening to his father’s heavy metal albums, dressing in his clothes, rebelling against hockey stardom and running with a down-and-out biker gang. Deaner ’89 is in part inspired by Spence’s own family past, which allowed the filmmaker to explore the comedy behind a fictional character.