Emergence: Women in the Storm looks at B.C. communities rebuilding from climate disaster, to March 2
At VIFF Centre, new Velcrow Ripper and Nova Ami documentary finds women leading residents out of wildfire and flood catastrophes, in Lytton, Yarrow, and beyond
Scenes from Emergence: Women in the Storm
Emergence: Women in the Storm is at the VIFF Centre on February 25 (with the filmmakers in attendance for a Q&A), February 27, and March 1 and 2
REMEMBER THE APOCALYPTIC weather patterns in 2021? The ones that added new levels of catastrophe for B.C. residents who had been dealing with COVID lockdowns? First, there was the summer’s heat dome that helped spark the decimation of Lytton by fire; a few months later, an atmospheric river caused devastating flooding in the Fraser Valley.
Now B.C. filmmakers Velcrow Ripper and Nova Ami, the same pair behind the wildfire doc Incandescence, take a reflective look back on that traumatic time, contextualizing the two disasters not as freak events but as harbingers of a new normal, thanks to climate change. As one expert predicts here: “We will have to face the marathon of crisis after crisis after crisis.” As another puts it: “We cannot use the past to project our future.”
Uniquely, the documentary homes in on women who have taken the lead in restoration, healing, and restitution amid catastrophe in B.C. and the Northwest Territories.
But first it captures recent crises through harrowing first-person accounts and a mix of found and drone footage that shows the scale of the damage. In the case of Lytton, residents describe a close-knit community faced with minutes to decide what to grab before they fled the fire on a highway cloaked in black smoke.
There and elsewhere, rebuilding and government support came at a glacial pace. In Yarrow, we see women setting up a much-needed food hub; in Lytton, others call for long-term food security and mental health supports that go beyond the initial damage control. At another point, we meet a new generation of women committed to becoming wildfire-fighters.
Throughout, art plays a key role in helping people work through the trauma, via dance, storytelling, painting, or poetry. Woven in are the words of Meghan Fandrich, reading from Burning Sage: Poems From the Lytton Fire, written after losing her café in the cozy town to the blaze.
Amid it all, Emergence makes a strong case for a new model of emergency preparedness—namely, a grassroots effort that is more proactive and efficient than the bureaucratic, government-led recovery process that moves in after climate catastrophe hits. As an expert here puts it, it's time to move "from command and control to connect and empower" as we all face the new normal. 
Related Articles
