What do our
ancestors want from us? How can we
reconcile family disagreements? What is our purpose on this planet, at this
time, in this place? An epic kayak
journey along BC's breathtaking inside passage from Vancouver to Klemtu offers
plenty of time to ponder all this and much more.
Kayak to Klemtu is a feature film rather than a documentary,
although anyone who's followed young Ta'Kaiya Blaney's impressive songwriting/activist
career will recognize that her passion for the wilderness, her experience
speaking truth to power, is very real.
Lorne Cardinal, perhaps best known as the goofy cop from the popular
Corner Gas TV show, adds some comic relief. And there are "white" characters too, connected by
heart and marriage. We're all in
this together!
In a sadly
ironic twist of fate, filmmaker Zoe Hopkins returned to her birthplace Bella
Bella shortly after completing the filming of Kayak to Klemtu, to begin a documentary short titled Impossible to Contain.
In 2016 the Nathan E. Stewart, operating in BC waters with an exemption
from Canada Shipping Act regulations, ran aground near Bella Bella and dropped 200,000
litres of diesel and heavy fuels.
Clean up went on for a full month, and exposed the potential for further
devastation if industry gets its way.*
Much of the kayak journey was filmed near Bella
Bella, so it's not exactly a full coastline experience. From personal experience I can attest
that the area is amazingly beautiful, as the film portrays, and it's easy to
imagine whales and sea lions and untouched wilderness exists all the way north
to Klemtu and beyond. Let's keep
it that way.
Kayak to Klemtu screens Sunday February 4th 3:30 pm, and Tuesday
February 6th 9 pm at SilverCity 3. Get your tickets HERE.
* Since 2015 a northern
coast based Facebook page, 10,000 Ton Tanker, continues to monitor Articulated
Tanker Barges (ATBs) passing through the Inside Passage.