The Fairy Creek (Ada’itsx) valley sprawls across Pacheedaht First Nation territory on southwestern Vancouver Island and its old growth forest ecosystem thrives with lush foliage, ancient tree trunks, and a variety of wildlife. However, the decimating chainsaws and tractor machinery of the Teal Jones lumber corporation disrupt this equilibrium as they demolish an environmental haven into pavement for their road-building project. Amidst the tumult, Jen Muranetz’s FAIRY CREEK captures the vast collective protests against this destructive logging operation: a movement which has spawned both the largest demonstration of civil disobedience in Canadian history and the mass arrests of 1200 people.

The film offers visceral front-line footage of activists faced with an RCMP-enforced injunction, protesting from ground to sky as blockaders form barriers with their bodies and tree-sitters’ forest canopies are assailed by officers deployed from helicopters. FAIRY CREEK is an urgent portrait of resistance, documenting an assembly of protestors organizing together despite varying backgrounds, ideologies, and tactics. Director Muranetz highlights the rapture of a united eco-activist community, coinhabiting the earth, dancing together, and cherishing biodiversity. At the same time, this breathtaking documentary tremors with the challenges of political consciousness in an age of rampant extractive capitalism, where industries working with governments eviscerate everything in their path, including the last pristine ecosystems. FAIRY CREEK depicts a historic struggle to defend Canadian old growth forests as an experience of absolute devotion, thrust between whiplashes of triumph and heartbreak.

Director Jen Muranetz and producer / DP Sepehr Samimi will be in attendance for post-show Q&A.

Saturday, June 7
Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

FAIRY CREEK (Jen Muranetz, 2024 / 78 mins / NR) In a last-ditch attempt to stop old growth logging, some impassioned forest defenders put up more than 12 blockades across the pristine Fairy Creek valley in Vancouver Island. History repeats in a deja-vu of the iconic Clayoquot Sound blockades in the 90s, this time with higher stakes amidst a climate emergency. A deep dive into the complex encounters of the settler activists, local First Nation members, loggers, and RCMP officers, this character-driven feature documentary chronicles the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.