qathet filmmaker debuts Hell and Highwater at qiff

Jeremy Williams has been filming with the Nlakaʼpamux Nation territory for several years, highlighting the practical solutions to the climate crisis demonstrated in the community of Kanaka Bar. His friends Tina Grenier and her husband Chief Patrick Michell lost their home on June 30th, 2021 when the community of Lytton went up in flames. Jeremy and Charles Latimer (from Lund) with Greenpeace Canada filmed the aftermath of the fires in early November of 2021. Two weeks later the atmospheric rivers flooded the communities of Merritt, Princeton and Hope BC, trapping Jeremy in the interior for two weeks.

In the spring of 2022, Jeremy returned to the interior to film the aftermath of the flooding. And in the fall of 2022 Jeremy visited UBC to meet with professors Dr. Younes Alila and Dr. Lori Daniels to learn about how drastically industrial ‘forestry’ has impacted the hydrology of our forests.

Thirty to 40% of the Nicola Valley watershed has been logged and the replanted mono crops take at least 80 years to resemble the ecosystems and hydrological systems that they once were.

In his short film Hell and Highwater Jeremy tells the heartbreaking story of the communities of Lytton and Shackan as they experience the traumatic loss of their homes.

After filming for a year and a half, this story is ready to be told. The story calls out the need for systems change and how we must yield to indigenous wisdom and respect mother nature’s laws.