CROSS CANADA CAMPUS TOUR
Tour stops will take place February – April 2023
The Cross Canada Campus Tour is back! Fill out the form below to program a free environmental film screening on your campus. Planet in Focus will assist each school with the organization of a post-screening discussion with filmmaker or local guest experts to delve deeper into the issues and suggestions for action. Questions? Email schooltour@planetinfocus.org
WOMEN IN ACTIVISM
Ranger
Ranger is a story about the wilderness within us all. Set amongst Kenya’s Maasai community, an intimate and contemporary tale of self-discovery unfolds, as 12 women become East Africa’s first all-female anti-poaching unit. Upending the male-dominated reliance upon military-style training to make a wildlife ranger, Virginia, Liz, Momina and Damaris instead undergo a 6 month rite of passage, rooted in deep trauma-release and healing processes. Their journey triggers profound transformation, sending shockwaves through their communities. Ranger largely takes place in the middle of the Laikipia plateau, on the slopes of the snow-capped Mount Kenya. It is a place of warriors, cattle and goat-herding pastoralist tribes, horizons lined by acacia trees, plains roamed by giants. While it is a deeply human story, the film also pays homage to this precious place by letting the audience feel the natural symphony of rain, blistering heat, the thirst of land and animal alike, the crisp Laikipia night, the exhilaration and vulnerability of sleeping in the bush under the moon and stars.
This program includes the short film:
Sacrificed 
David Sanchez | Canada | 2022 | 12 min
Flavie is a daring and opinianated 15-year-old teen who, in order to defend her social and environmental beliefs, is ready to practice civil disobedience even at the risk of facing justice. In a discussion with her parents on the consequences of her actions, they will go so far as to confront their respective visions of the future and what actions to take for things to change. A powerful debate between two generations.
INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES
Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence
Beyond Extinction traces Indigenous matriarchs who revive traditions and fight to save an ancient burial ground in BC’ Slocan Valley. Declared “extinct” by the Indian Act, the film documents their intimate living histories and their decades long struggle for recognition. It weaves together observational footage, contemporary interviews, oral histories, survival stories told by matriarchs, personal as well as public archives, to tell a story never told before. This documentary traces through generations to find out how the Indian Act, colonialism, residential schools, and borders led to the Canadian government declaring the Sinixt people to be “extinct”.
This program includes the short film:
Bill Reid Remembers
Alanis Obamsawin | Canada | 2022 | 24min
Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida artist Bill Reid always kept Haida Gwaii close to his heart.
AGRICULTURE
Humus
According to the FAO, the earth’s topsoil could vanish within 60 years, worn away by erosion. Aware that time is running out, a pair of market gardeners strive to implement nature’s fundamental principles in their fields in an attempt to forge a new alliance with all the living world. Their quest is guided by ancient and new-found knowledge that confirms the interdependence of all that lives, the result of millions of years of co-evolution.
The program includes the short film:
Food That Grows on Water
Gabriel Laurence Cowan | USA | 2022 | 17 min
Right now in Minnesota, Canadian oil pipeline company Enbridge, is illegally building the Line 3 pipeline on sovereign Native American land. As predicted, the pipeline has already spilled during construction and has leaked toxic drilling fluids. If this pipeline continues to spill crude tar sand oil into the land and water it will destroy, among other things, the highly valued native wild rice (manoomin), an important food for the Ojibwe and Anishinaabe people.
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY
Wochiigii Lo: End of the Peace
Heather Hatch | Canada | 90 min
Major themes: extractive industries, water pollution
Shot over five years by Haida filmmaker Heather Hatch, this is a stirring chronicle of resistance and environmental stewardship, pitting First Nations people against the British Columbia government. At issue is the ongoing construction of Site C, a multi-billion-dollar mega-dam along the province’s Peace River. If completed, the project will flood thousands of acres of agricultural land, threaten critical habitat, and endanger a way of life that has been sustainably practiced for millennia—even as official assessments suggest the dam’s potential benefits are difficult to discern.
This program includes the short film:
Joe Buffalo
Amar Chebib | Canada | 15 min
Themes: addiction, mental health
Joe Buffalo is an Indigenous skateboard legend. He’s also a survivor of Canada’s notorious Indian Residential School system. Following a traumatic childhood and decades of addiction, Joe must face his inner demons to realize his dream of turning pro.
URBAN INDUSTRIES
The Gig is Up 
Shannon Walsh | Canada | 88 min
Themes: corporate responsibility, human rights
A very human tech doc, THE GIG IS UP uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of workers from around the world for companies including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo. From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected. Who are the people in this shadow workforce? THE GIG IS UP brings their stories into the light.
The program includes the short film:
The Wilderness Within
Jason van Bruggen | Canada | 12 min
Themes: ecology, Toronto
A realist’s assessment of the declining health of urban wilderness and our fleeting opportunity to restore it. This is the story of one man’s obsessive quest to re-wild Toronto’s ravines by bringing the offspring of ecological elders, or mother trees, back to their natural homes. It is a call to arms for nature lovers around the world.
This program is generously funded by
