Fairy Creek documentary goes behind the barricades, June 6 to 16 at VIFF Centre
Film gives a front-row view of complex fight to protect old-growth forests, in largest act of disobedience in Canadian history
Fairy Creek.
Fairy Creek screens at the VIFF Centre from June 8 to 18
IN 2020–21, VANCOUVER ISLAND’S Fairy Creek became a huge flashpoint over B.C.’s logging practices and the province’s remaining old-growth forests. The protests that happened there are considered the largest act of disobedience in Canadian history; more than a thousand people were arrested.
Documentary director Jen Muranetz and her crew for the film Fairy Creek, which hits the VIFF Centre starting tonight, give a front-row view of the historic confrontation. They embed themselves behind the barricades and even get footage in the treetops where protesters sat, as forestry workers retaliated and police arrests began.
This look at the front lines of the remote standoff puts you in the middle of protester campsites, mini-raves, and communal kitchens, and high above the area’s emerald canopy, where logging’s initial damage to the region’s biggest cedars is most striking.
The fight got results: the BC NDP government has now extended deferral of logging in Fairy Creek, in partnership with the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations, with a pledge to protect the watershed. But the film shows the complexity and often frustrating futility of battles like these. For the millions the logging company stood to make from Fairy Creek, millions were also spent arresting people. Further complicating issues were the divisions between settler protesters and young Indigenous activists, and within the Pacheedaht First Nation itself.
These are urgent issues in a province where less than three percent of old-growth forest ecosystems remains—and Fairy Creek offers an important fly-on-the-wall look at all sides. 
Related Articles
