The film depicts the lives of the two sole residents of an abandoned company town while unfolding a complex labour history and revealing the vestiges of environmental degradation. Combining large format cinematography and an inquiry into the archival record, it interlaces past and present.

Anyox

A lyrical study of the nearly abandoned company town west of Bella Coola that all but withered and died once its existence no longer made financial sense. Ryan Ermacora and Jessica Johnson invite us to marvel at the stark contrast between the vibrant coastal forests and the manmade structures that have fallen into ruin. An almost spectral presence is on hand to impart tales of a rebellious past and we’re left to consider the grim fates that sometimes befall grand schemes.

Ocean Falls

The Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia is marketed as a destination of leisure, recreation, retirement and wealth. Behind this facade is a largely invisible agricultural labour force, comprised of temporary migrant workers from the Global South. These workers are placed in a system that is inherently precarious and potentially exploitative, wherein their legal status is tied directly to their employer, with no path to permanent citizenship. While the workers pay into Canadian health care and pension plans, they do not benefit from these social goods as temporary citizens. This film aims to make this labour visible, while contemplating the prescribed aesthetics imposed on the landscape within the region. Formally, the film resides at the intersection of photography and the moving image, while embracing the generative structural limitations of early cinema.

Labour/Leisure

Empire Valley contemplates cinema’s ability to transmit a confluence of times through landscape—whether that time be geological, personal or political. Situated within Tsilhqot'in territory in central British Columbia, the film addresses the way in which a landscape is carved out and altered in order to suit particular economic conditions. Further than solely contemplating the environmental, economic and social implications of this site’s history, this film is an attempt to grapple with the aesthetics imposed on the landscape by agricultural practices, erosion, and the traces of colonial ideologies.