By Roy L Hales
When Island Timberlands arrived in 2012, they found Cortes island residents waiting behind a blockade. The Vancouver Observer sent a young film maker to cover the story, but Daniel Pierce found more than just another clash between a logging company and local environmentalists. He is still documenting British Columbia’s fight for sustainable logging.
Continue reading British Columbia’s Fight For Sustainable LoggingThe award-winning documentary “Fractured Land” follows the life of First Nations warrior and lawyer, Caleb Behn as he explores the impacts hydraulic fracturing is having on his community. It will soon be aired on the Knowledge Network. I had an opportunity to ask Campbell River filmmaker Damien Gillis, What’s behind the documentary Fractured Land?
Continue reading Behind The Documentary Fractured Land
Most of us have seen historical photographs of the great forests that once stood in British Columbia. Though his family has worked in the forestry sector for a century, Damien Gillis’ first view of a forest like this came during a six-day-trek into the Incomappleux Valley. The award winning Campbell River documentary film maker (Fractured Land, Oil in Eden) says, “it was like nothing I’ve seen before, just the way the ecosystem is really a cycle of life, death and rebirth right before your eyes.” Some of the trees he saw had been saplings around the time of the Roman Empire. The resulting documentary, Primeval: Enter the Incomappleux offers viewers a rare glimpse inside one of BC’s disappearing old growth rainforests.
Continue reading Inside One Of British Columbia’s Disappearing Old Growth Rainforests
Sacred places are the oldest form of protected areas on the planet. In my interview with filmmaker, Christopher McLeod we talked about the importance of sacred places to indigenous cultures and the message his documentary series Standing on Sacred Ground has for EuroAmerican culture, the California drought and the Alberta oilsands.
Continue reading The Man Who Made Standing On Sacred Ground
Christopher McLeod was disturbed by the environmental injustice. He saw Native Americans subjected to airborne coal pollution, and their water being taken for slurry lines. The Hopi elders told him there was a spiritual side to the injustice. These violations were taking place within a network of sacred places that their people had preserved for countless generations. These consisted of a sacred mountain, sacred springs that gave the Hopi life, and their ancestral burial grounds. The elders told him the cause of the West’s environmental crises is the disconnect from their spiritual link to the earth. This has become the message behind Standing on Sacred Ground, a four part documentary which can be seen on the WORLD Channel, Sundays at 9:00 PM (ET) until June 14, 2015.
Continue reading Behind Standing on Sacred Ground
