When Charles Wilkinson first arrived on Haida Gwaii, he was overwhelmed by the quiet.
“There’s no hum of activity there that you hear most other places,” recalls the Vancouver-based filmmaker. “It’s just quiet. You can hear birds’ wings there. You can hear the fish jumping. It’s pretty remarkable.”
Haida Gwaii is an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, and the traditional home of the Haida Nation.
It is there, on the quiet terrain that’s inspired generations of artists (including the late Bill Reid), that a long-simmering conflict is currently unfolding – one that pits the residents of Haida Gwaii against corporate interests seeking to disrupt the delicate balance of island life for economic gains.
This line of cinematic exploration is familiar territory for Wilkinson. His previous documentaries – Peace Out and Oil Sands Karaoke – exposed what happens when corporations are given free rein over the environment, the best interests of the planet be damned.
But with his latest documentary, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, Wilkinson reveals a community that is fighting back against powerful corporate entities, championing long-term sustainability over short-term economic growth.
On Haida Gwaii, Wilkinson and filmmaking partner Tina Schliessler “found a place that was actually a lot different [from where they’d been before], where it isn’t boarded up and where people do have a sense of hope,” says Wilkinson. “We thought it was so cool, and we thought it would make a great movie, because it’s an amazing story, and it turned out to be true.”
It’s a collection of islands where scars from decades of logging can still be seen and felt, and where its residents – the Haida Nation at the helm – are standing their ground against Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
In the documentary, interviews with Haida Gwaii stakeholders are interwoven with footage of the region’s natural wonders (“Being able to make a movie in a place that’s so extraordinarily beautiful, to use a 500mm lens filming grey whales as they feed on herring spawn, my god! [It felt like you can] reach out and touch them”).
Wilkinson operated a drone camera for some of the doc’s more sweeping shots.
“This was the first time we used a drone, and the learning curve on that was very, very steep, to get something that was actually useful instead of getting something that looks like it was shot by a skateboarder,” laughs Wilkinson. “I have a pilot’s license, so I’m not a stranger to those kinds of things, but it’s difficult to get a useful shot.”
He must have done okay, though, because Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World is resonating with audiences.
It was named Best Canadian Documentary at HotDocs, and took home the award for Most Popular Canadian Documentary at the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival.
On Nov. 20, it kicks off an extended run at the Vancity Theatre.
“People are taking away what I’d hoped they were taking away, which is that there are concrete steps that each and every one of us can do to make our lives better, and have a better impact on our kids and our grandkids,” says Wilkinson.
“We’ve never had a film where people stay through the whole Q and A before as much as they are for this, and all of the questions have to do with living more simply and buying less stuff and spending more time in the community and sourcing food.”
But what do the Haida Gwaiians think of Wilkinson’s film? Wilkinson admits he was nervous heading into the two island screenings that Knowledge Network organized for the film this past summer.
“People there can be really critical, because guys have been poaching on their culture forever, and using it for their own ends, and sometimes not very positively, sometimes with some pretty bad results,” says Wilkinson.
“So we were nervous about it, but it was amazing: A prolonged standing ovation with shouting and crying and tears. It was the best moment I’d ever had after a screening, ever.”
What Wilkinson has learned from his triptych of ecological films is that humanity isn’t entirely doomed, but the time for action is now.
“The analogy that I think is the most appropriate for where we are right now as a species is that we’re heading towards a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour and if we slam on the brakes today, we’re going to smash the front bumper, the hood, we’ll ruin the fenders and need an alignment, but the car will survive,” says Wilkinson.
“If we don’t, we’re going to go through the windshield, and people don’t get that. Our politicians don’t get it.”
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World screens at Vancity Theatre from Nov. 20-Dec. 3. Tickets and info at VIFF.org
