A feature-length documentary critical of the liquefied natural gas exporting plant currently being built in the Kitimat area is bound to draw a crowd in Victoria, where protests against the tanker traffic the pipeline will produce have been plentiful.
But there鈥檚 an added layer of interest for local filmgoers where the documentary The Whale and the Raven is concerned. 91原创鈥檚 Andrew Williamson, a former University of Victoria student who spent the majority of his teen years on Salt Spring Island, served as a producer on the National Film Board of Canada co-production, and will be in attendance at 7 tonight and Thursday when the film has its Victoria premi猫re at UVic theatre Cinecenta (Nov. 27 and 28, Student Union Building, 3800 Finnerty Rd. Tickets are $7.75, $6.75 for students and seniors).
Wilkinson, 47, will answer questions from the audience prior to the screenings, something he has done at premi猫res in Toronto and 91原创, with a range of results. 鈥淲hat I appreciate about the approach of [German writer-director Mirjam Leuze], who is not 91原创, was to try and see it from different perspectives. One of the things that attached us to the project early was that it wasn鈥檛 going to be a black-and-white issue.鈥�
The film looks at the $40-billion project by LNG Canada and the effect that it will have on the whale ecosystem in the affected area, from Kitimat and Terrace to Prince Rupert. Whale researchers delve into the marine environment and its inhabitants, while looking at the issue of governance, both from a provincial standpoint and from that of the surrounding First Nations. It鈥檚 a complex issue, but Wilkinson said the film team does not try to solve it during the film.
鈥淭here are not a lot of jobs up there [north]. I may have my personal opinions on what we need to do from a climate-change perspective, but I鈥檓 not trying to figure out how to pay my rent or my mortgage, and keep my kids in clothes. Those are tough decisions people have to make. If we鈥檙e not all going to band together and transition as a country into a different fuel infrastructure, we have to accept that some people are going to have to work.鈥�
Williamson came to the project through his 91原创 production company, Cedar Island Films, and said his work on The Whale and the Raven will have an impact on his future projects. 鈥淭here is anger at some of the injustice, but I鈥檝e always been motivated to take action through the skills I have, to keep the conversations going.鈥�
