Young filmmakers Shalyn Pigeon and Mackenzie Pittman, members of the Ashcroft Indian Band, and Merritt area filmmaker/cameraman Michael Auger, have won a $10,000 Telus Storyhive competition, and will be producing a short documentary film about the Elephant Hill wildfire and its effect on their community, specifically its youth.
Pigeon—the Band’s community engagement officer—says they heard about the competition from Auger, who has done filming in the Nation.
“We had to make a one-minute pitch video, and explain who we are and what we want to do, give some background on what the story is.”
Their entry for the competition, called The Fire Within Us, is narrated by Pittman, and explains that they wanted to make a film that showed the impact of the fire on the community, particularly on youth, and the resilience shown in the face of it. The pitch film can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2ISWXsZ.
When they found out that they had won, Pigeon says she asked various youth who came into the Band office if they wanted to take part, and found four who were willing to go on camera. “Each one has a different perspective and background,” she notes.
“One lost their home, and another has kids.” Filming starts the week of May 28, and the film will be completed by the end of the summer.
Pigeon, Pittman, and Auger will also be producing a short documentary film looking at the impact of the fire, and its aftermath, on the community as a whole, with youth from the Band developing and filming the project.
“This one will be wider, with a broader scope. Michael will come out and guide it, but youth will be doing it. That was our idea; we felt people were more likely to open up, and be more comfortable, with youth.
“And it’s important to have people from our community do it, and record our history in a technically-relevant way. They’ll learn how to use a camera, use a drone. It’s about capacity-building, and bringing people together.” Funding for the project is coming from the First Peoples Cultural Council and the Red Cross, and the film will be finished by October 2018.
Pigeon says she hopes to also record some oral histories of the community, noting that the Band’s historical records were lost in the fire. “This will be a good experience to learn from,” she says. “It will show the day of the fire from a youth perspective, and what different people experienced on that day. There’ll be no scripts; people will use the voice they want other people to hear.”
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