Inspired
by Kwaxsistalla, a Kwakwaka’wakw clan chief, the filmmaker embarks upon
a cinematic journey contrasting the tree-farms that dominate the
landscape surrounding his home on Vancouver Island with an ancient
rainforest on the Pacific Coast of Canada.
Guided by passion and a determination to
honor reality, Richard Boyce travels to the most remote corner of
Vancouver Island, through some of the most intensive logging on the
planet, into a wilderness that is on the brink of extinction.
Best Mountain Culture Film Award
Massive
trees, ranging in age between 1,200 years old and seedlings, thrive
along the banks of an ancient river floodplain, which provides for
diverse life forms in the temperate rainforest. This film is an
evocative journey, contrasting forestry as practiced for ten thousand
years by First Nation’s people with modern logging.
The Jury praised the film for “re-exposing our most critical
environmental issue while at the same time pushing the cinematic
experience and limits of storytelling, cinematography and editing.”