Emergence: Women in the Storm

Sunday March 8 @ 1:30 pm

Documentary
Not Rated – 1hr 25min

Climate change is here.

As heat domes, atmospheric rivers and mega fires reshape our world, how do we protect the things that are most vital? Emergence: Women in the Storm, from award-winning filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper (Incandescence, Metamorphosis), goes beyond the headlines to explore how people are navigating the reality of climate emergency.

When fire broke out in the town of Lytton, B.C., residents were forced to flee through air filled with the smell of burning sage. In the Fraser Canyon, Yarrow, and Princeton, massive flooding left entire communities without food, heat or power. But in a crisis, it is everyday people who provide critical support and aid. Across Canada, residents opened their homes to evacuees, offering food, shelter, places to camp and help with livestock.

Through interviews with survivors, impressionist sequences, and remarkable footage, the raw poetry of renewal is forged. Built out of empathy, shared experience and the need to stabilize the life-sustaining systems of the planet and its inhabitants, this collective effort brings people together to tell a new story about living better in a changed world.

Nova Ami is a Canadian documentary filmmaker of mixed Filipino heritage. Her current work explores themes of climate emergency and environment, focusing on the perspectives of women and diverse communities.

Recent projects include creative collaborations with filmmaker Velcrow Ripper: Emergence: Women in the Storm explores how communities are navigating the reality of climate emergency as atmospheric rivers, heat domes, and mega fires reshape our world. Incandescence is an immersive, experiential feature documentary about wildfire (produced by the NFB). The award-winning Metamorphosis, a theatrical feature documentary which explores the theme of change in this time of climate crisis, described as “breathtaking” by the Toronto Star. Say I Do, following the journeys of Filipino women who came to Canada as mail-order brides; and Secrets: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Sexuality which aired on CBC’s The Passionate Eye.

She was host, director, and writer on The Leading Edge, a television series about innovation that aired on Knowledge, and was host and segment producer of GVTV, a series about urban issues in metro Vancouver.

Velcrow Ripper creates powerful, cinematic feature documentaries that deal with the central issues of our times. His films are released widely in movie theatres, streaming, broadcast and community screenings around the world. They have featured luminaries such as bell hooks, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Alice Walker. He began co-directing with Nova Ami with the award winning feature doc Metamorphosis, the web series Living With Dying, and their latest feature docs, Incandescence (NFB) and Emergence: Women in the Storm (a Knowledge Original). His epic Fierce Light Trilogy began with Scared Sacred, a journey to the Ground Zeroes of the world, winner of the 2005 Genie (Canadian Academy) Award for best feature documentary, continued with Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, and concluded with Occupy Love. His film about elders and the struggle to save the ancient forests, Bones of the Forest (co-directed with Heather Frise) won nine awards. He is well known for his award-winning sound design of such films as The Corporation (Best Sound, Leo Awards) and A Place Called Chiapas (Best Sound, Hot Docs, Leo Awards).