The Stand

Saturday March 15 at 1:30pm

Special Guest: Shirley Vercruysse, NFB Executive Producer

Preceded by: Tu DesDes, Paddling the Pelly

Archival Documentary
1 hr 34 min – Not Rated – Released 2024

Drawn from more than a hundred hours of archival footage and audio, Haida artist and filmmaker, Christopher Auchter’s riveting new feature doc recreates the moment when the Haida Nation took a stand for the future. On a misty morning in the fall of 1985, a small group of Haida people blockaded a muddy dirt road on Lyell Island (then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands).

After a century of colonialist rule, Haida culture was nearly obliterated, with language and traditions fading, and the land stripped of its resources. But a committed group of Haida and their supporters took a stand, demanding a stop to clear-cut logging practices that had destroyed salmon habitat and ravaged old-growth forest. In the face of overwhelming pressure from the RCMP, private logging interests and even the media, the defenders called for the government to work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and the future.

Award-winning director Christopher Auchter (Now Is the Time) depicts the courage, tenacity and tension of this critical turning point. The Stand captures the struggle as it unfolds on a moment-to-moment basis. As a complex battle played out on remote logging roads, in the legal system and in the court of public opinion, authorities staged a steady propaganda campaign, alongside stalling tactics and a police presence, to undermine the Haida cause. With the whole world watching, would the Haida hold fast to their strategy of peaceful resistance, or would violence erupt?

The standoff becomes embodied in the voices of two men. On the Haida side is leader Miles Richardson, who serves as the main spokesperson for the nation both at the blockade and outside in the media. On the other side is Frank Beban, who asserts his company’s right to log on the land and has the paperwork to prove it. But Richardson’s clear that Beban’s permit is worth beans when the Haida never ceded that territory. The standoff assumes national significance for the precedent the case entails: who has jurisdiction over unceded land?

The Stand pays homage to the elders with an animated figure, Mouse Woman, who appears throughout the film. On one hand, Mouse Woman serves a practical function. Speech bubbles appear with her shape-shifting mouth. She provides context and bits of information that’s absent from the archives. At other times, she offers a dramatic and thematic presence. Mouse Woman shadows the land defenders as a sort of mystical guide. The animated conceit is a refreshing alternative from static title cards, particularly when she interacts with the archive and helps break the riveting tension.

The parallels between past and present continue to resound, as the Lyell Island blockade laid the foundations for current land-claim treaties across Canada. From the Haida Nation’s resolute act of vision and conscience emerged an unbreakable commitment to justice, solidarity and Indigenous sovereignty that echoes forth to this day.