Fairy Creek documents the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history; a blockade which made international headlines and broke records with nearly 1200 people arrested for protesting to protect BC’s last old-growth forests
Understory Films’ documentary feature film FAIRY CREEK will screen for audiences at home in BC for the first time at the Whistler Film Festival on December 7, 2024, 2024 at 3:45pm at the Village 8 Cinemas in Whistler. It was also recently announced that Cinema Politica boarded the film as distributor ahead of the film’s world premiere at Planet in Focus, where the film took home the Best Canadian Feature Award.
In FAIRY CREEK, director Jen Muranetz documents the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, creating a searing portrait of contemporary environmental activism, bearing witness to the lengths activists are willing to go to protect British Columbia’s last old growth forests. With unique insider access, the team behind FAIRY CREEK follows the Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) blockade from its early inception to its bittersweet ending through the lens of an ensemble cast of blockade vanguards and those who oppose them. Employing in-the-trenches cinema vérité, the film introduces spirited environmentalists embroiled in a series of often violent altercations with loggers and RCMP, all while trying to stop old-growth logging in the untouched Fairy Creek valley. The activists show unwavering dedication to their cause, while having compelling internal debates about whose voices are prioritized in the movement. By documenting this significant and contentious juncture in time, FAIRY CREEK calls attention to a much larger conversation: what does it take to find common ground in the fight for a climate-just future?
“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, despite a tight security culture within the blockade.,” says Muranetz. “Our key creative team has experience with frontline climate-focused documentaries. We used this experience to employ a fly-on-the-all approach, developing a raw cinematic language that places viewers in close proximity to the film’s participants and central tension.”
The film assembles visceral front-line footage of activists faced with an RCMP-enforced injunction, protesting from ground to sky as blockaders form barriers with their bodies and tree-sitters’ forest canopies are assailed by officers deployed from helicopters. Weaving together an array of perspectives, FAIRY CREEK is an urgent and heartbreaking portrait of collective resistance that simultaneously explores the contradictions in a mass movement of civil disobedience. Quickly, a conflict of intentions emerges, split between Indigenous land sovereignty and preservation of old growth forests. With nuance, Muranetz captures divisions between settler protestors and Indigenous activists. The film also elucidates stark disagreements between Pacheedaht members and their band council, refuting the misconception of a monolithic Indigenous perspective. FAIRY CREEK depicts this historic struggle to defend Canadian old growth forestry as a dialogue of voices, where unity and disagreement constitute a growing movement.
Filmed in Port Renfrew, Victoria and Southern Vancouver Island, BC and in Montreal, QC, FAIRY CREEK is directed and produced by Jen Muranetz (What About Our Future?) and produced by Sepehr Samimi (Light Through The Blindfold) who is also the director of photography. Executive producers are Mark Achbar (The Corporation, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media), Neal Livingston and Mitchell Steinke. The film was edited by Rafi Spivak (Raised to be Heroes, Kingsway) and Liam Sherriff (Physician, Heal Thyself). The composer is Amine Bouzaher, sound designer is Eli Haligua, and story advisor is Nettie Wild (KONELINE: Our Land Beautiful, FIX: The Story of an Addicted City).
FAIRY CREEK is distributed by Cinema Politica. The film was made possible with the support of Telefilm Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Art Council, the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker Assistance Program, and Small Change Fund.
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.
