There are times when Northern Grease feels like a promotional video from Destination BC stunning shots of a snowboarder riding down pristine snow-covered mountains, grizzly bears fording a rock-strewn river, forests that stretch forever....
But then there are the other shots: factories next to those rivers, oil processing plants belching fire and smoke, bulldozers raking a clear-cut forest.
Northern Grease, a new documentary by Beyond Boarding, purposefully uses those beautiful shots of British Columbias interior as a way of hooking young viewers. The scenes of the industrialization taking place in the midst of such natural splendour compel them to care about whats happening there.
We channel it through these characters ourselves learning about these issues, Tamo Campos says of the film he made with Jasper Snow Rosen and John Muirhead.
The storyline follows these three young snowboarding friends as they head north along the Sea to Sky highway in a truck powered by waste cooking oil from local restaurants. During their 18,000 kilometre adventure they do snowboard, but they also discover that its not just outdoor enthusiasts who are tapping into BCs natural resources.
We tried to stay as open-minded as possible, Campos says during a break in the last-minute film-editing process. We present so many different viewpoints. And were not trying to just talk about doom and gloom. We explore solutions to the problems were finding.
Beyond Boarding was created two and a half years ago as a way to spread awareness amongst snowboarders, surfers, skiers, and hikers of the threats caused by environmental degradation. This demographic, the website says, is the greatest ambassador for the power and importance of the natural world.
Their first documentary is the recently released Belen, shot at the headwaters of the Amazon to show the devastating impact of climate change. Northern Grease premieres February 12 at Vancouvers Cinematheque as part of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
Campos is David Suzukis grandson and Suzukis message had definitely been passed down through the generations.
We cant have an economy thats exempt from natural laws, Campos says.
