Though Mirjam Leuze’s captivating documentary takes its title from its two main characters, marine researchers Janie Wray and Hermann Meuter, The Whale and the Raven is, above all, about a community, and the precious rainforest ecosystem within which that community is situated. With the permission of their hosts from the Gitga’at First Nation, Wray and Meuter have established a base of operations in British Columbia’s Hartley Bay, where they have discovered a marine corridor of unique solitude, its natural silence perfectly suited to sonar-reliant humpbacks and orcas. Or so it seems, until the approval of a natural gas tanker route threatens to disrupt the waters and drive the whales away. At once intimate and majestic, The Whale and the Raven is a multifaceted look at yet another clash between economic and ecological considerations, and the potential ramifications for creatures of all kinds that have made this habitat their home.
Preceded by short film Media Resistance
Media Resistance: Land & Water is Ashton Janvier’s second Wapikoni project that sheds light on the environmental injustices brought forth onto Dene land in Northern Saskatchewan by invasive uranium mining operations. Multigenerational voices reflect the crucial fight against environmental destruction.
Special guest, Autumn Peltier will be present to accept the 2019 Rob Stewart Youth Eco-Hero Award for her outstanding activism for clean water, particularly as Chief Water Commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation at only 15 years old.
A Q&A will follow the screening with producers of The Whale and the Raven, Andrew Williamson and Henrik Meyer, and the NFB's Executive Director of English Programming, Michelle Van Beusekom.