Nettie Wild
The Tahltan First Nation has lived in remote northwestern British Columbia for thousands of years. They call their land "koneline" which means "our land beautiful" as well as "our mind beautiful," inextricably weaving human consciousness with the health of the land. Copper and gold mining companies call the Tahltan territory "the golden triangle," while hunting outfitters refer to it as "Canada's Serengeti." Award-winning director Nettie Wild crafts a breathtaking love letter—in stunning CinemaScope and surround sound—that captures the majestic beauty of the land and the unique people who live on it. The film features memorable characters: a woman who takes hunters on horseback deep into the mountains, a Tahltan man who records the vanishing Tahltan language, and Tahltan women and elders who protest increased mining activity. A cinematic poem, KONELINE evokes both the beauty and the complicated nature of its inhabitants and their relationship with this unique "wilderness."
Bevel Up is an educational film designed to give students and instructors access to the experience of health care practitioners who work with the drug-using population of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Produced by the same street nurses who work with these users on a daily basis, the film contains invaluable knowledge that can't be found in nursing schools and teaching hospitals.
There is a savage beauty and strange hope that comes from witnessing the surge of a massive migration. The return of blood-red Sockeye salmon up BC’s Adams River has repeated itself for millennia and if left uninterrupted, will do so for centuries to come. Most intriguingly, while the migration of fish repeats year after year, within it, the astounding patterns of dense, roiling salmon never repeat. In pools and back eddies along the Adams River, thousands of salmon create dynamic and mesmerizing patterns. It is natural and colossal. It is moving art. People locked in urban centres can easily forget that rivers in the wilderness exist and that those forgotten rivers provide a heartbeat for humanity. Removed from the surge of migrations, the unknowing and uninformed actions of human kind can threaten to stop that wild heartbeat. Splitting the screen into multiple images, UNINTERRUPTED brings the heart of the river into the heart of the city.
From cinema-verite; pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick movie makers like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, the world's best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre. Capturing Reality explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films. Deftly charting the documentarian's journey, it poses the question: can film capture reality?
Dean Wilson may be Canada’s most powerful junkie. He shoots heroin in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside and strategizes with federal health policy advisors. He is the president of a network of street-level drug users demanding that Vancouver open North America’s first safe injection site – the most controversial step of a daring new drug strategy. Users, residents, activists and police clash while Dean struggles to shake his addiction and discovers an unlikely ally in Vancouver’s conservative mayor.
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army--made up of impoverished Mayan Indians from the state of Chiapas--took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. The government deployed its troops, and at least 145 people died in the ensuing battle. Fighting for indigenous Mexicans to regain control over their lives and the land, the Zapatistas and their charismatic leader, guerilla poet Subcomandante Marcos, began sending their message to the world via the Internet. The result was what THE NEW YORK TIMES called "the world’s first postmodern revolution." Years into the uprising, filmmaker Nettie Wild traveled to the jungle canyons of southern Mexico to film the elusive and fragile life of the rebellion. Her camera effectively and movingly captures the personal stories behind a very public clash of traditional culture and globalization.
"Blockade" takes place in the mountains and valleys of northern British Columbia, at the heart of the boldest aboriginal land claims case to challenge the white history of Canada. The Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs claim that everything within 22,000 square miles, including the trees, is rightfully theirs.
Shot over eight months, often in dangerous conditions, the film chronicles the three points of an often-violent political triangle: the legal left; the illegal, armed leftists of the New People's Army; and the armed, reactionary right-wing groups operating on both sides of the law. The fascinating personalities on display include a former guerrilla leader now running for election; a rabidly right-wing radio DJ propagandizing for the death squads; and a rebel Catholic priest who shares command of the NPA. "There is (also) the puzzling dark side to Mrs. Aquino's presidency. The film captures the tragedy of the Mendiola massacre where famers were killed marching on the palace to demand land reform, and the president's confusing endorsement of the vigilante groups which have brought back the terror of the Marcos era ... A Rustling of Leaves places us in a most privileged position to hear their various rationales, to test the evidence, and to decide for ourselves" (Vancouver I.F.F.).
This short animation uses appliqué and embroidered tapestries to recall a young girl's happy summers spent sailing with her family off the coast of British Columbia. Each tapestry, meticulously stitched by hand with brightly coloured yarns, evokes the memory of leisurely days at sea, drifting among the islands.
