by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(October 10, 2024 – Toronto, ON) Not to be confused with an earlier film (Fairy Creek: The Last Stand) released in 2021, or The Last Stand, narrated by Peter Coyote in 2022, Fairy Creek is a new documentary feature from director Jen Muranetz. All three films deal with the same moment in Canadian history, a history that is all too often shaded with shame. All three films use original footage shot in 2021 at what is referred to as “the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history”.
For background, Fairy Creek is a real place, a real valley, a valley blessed in 2021 with a large old growth forest a logging company had a permit to destroy. Providing more detail, Muranetz is quoted as saying, “The protests at the Fairy Creek blockade were record-breaking, with nearly 1,200 people arrested. It attracted tens of thousands of people and a lot of media attention worldwide. Our team arrived at Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) in early 2021 as the first film team on the ground. We embedded ourselves into the blockade culture, spending several months building relationships with our subjects and developing the story. This early pursuit granted us intimate access to the characters. A tight security culture maintained amongst the blockaders meant that our access remained unique to our film, even after other members of the media showed up on the frontlines.”
Some of you may recall the deputy leader of the Green Party, Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, of the Da’naxda’xw First Nation received 60 days of jail time, after being convicted of seven counts of criminal contempt.
In this film we meet Shawna ‘Bushpig’ Knight, a land defense activist with Secwépemc First Nations ancestry, Bill Jones an Elder from the local Pacheedaht First Nation, and Kati George-Jim an Indigenous youth leader with relations from the nearby T’Sou-ke First Nation, who prioritizes Indigenous sovereignty over settler activism in the fight for these ancient trees who she calls her relatives. We also follow a group of five blockaders protesting from the canopies of old-growth trees, and Mike McKay, a forestry mill owner who takes us inside his logging operations, explaining how old-growth logging is an essential part of B.C.’s economy. The film also features an array of other characters that the team meets at the frontline of the blockade.
Fairy Creek will have its debut screening in Toronto at the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival. It has also been picked up by Cinema Politica as distributor ahead of the world premiere. Cinema Politica exhibits, distributes, and streams independent political films and believes in the power of art to not only entertain but to engage, inform, inspire, and provoke social change.
The Planet in Focus festival is one of many October film festivals listed by Northernstars.ca
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s
