Faller harvesting a large fir tree on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
 

Silvicola

by Jean-Philippe Marquis
About the Film

Set amongst the rugged forests and shorelines of the British Columbia, Silvicola is a tableau of the complex web of cultural and economic forces which compel and constrain modern forestry practices. A story told through the eyes of an eclectic mix of characters whose lives and livelihoods are intimately entangled with the forest, Silvicola employs sinuating vignettes and industrial soundscapes to explore the tensions and dilemmas between commodification and conservation. Contemplative and sensorially immense, Silvicola embeds the viewer within remote spaces and worksites normally hidden from view, from the verdure of old growth canopies to the destructive gigantism of mechanical harvesting to the numbing rhythm of sapling nurseries. A study of both our connection and disconnection with the forest, Silvicola is a film which demands a rethink of the divisions between natural and industrial worlds by spotlighting the hidden labour and logics of modern forestry.

2023  ·  1h20m  ·  Canada
English
English subs
Festivals and Awards
2023
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Official Selection, John Kastner Award
2023
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, BC Premiere, Official Selection
Screenings
April 28, 2023
World Premiere at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Toronto, Canada)
May 7, 2023
BC Premiere at DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Vancouver, Canada)
Credits
Director
Jean-Philippe Marquis
Producer
Jean-Philippe Marquis
Editor
Jean-Philippe Marquis, Emmet Walsh
Cinematography/Dop
Jean-Philippe Marquis
Sound
Oscar Vargas
Music/Composer
Samuel Laflamme
Credits (Other)
Drone operator: Scott Bell
Color
JF Robichaud
About the Director

Jean-Philippe Marquis

Jean-Philippe Marquis is a documentary filmmaker and director of photography based in Bella Coola, British Columbia. He has ten years of cinematography experience on documentaries and television series. As a director, his documentary work is often non-linear, and dwells on themes of contested geographies and resource extraction. He has made short films in Palestine, Congo-Kinshasa, and Cameroon, and has filmed extensively throughout Yukon and Western Canada. Jean-Philippe’s most recent work is Silvicola (Hot Docs, DOXA 2023), a feature-length documentary offering an unusually intimate glimpse into the people, processes, and paradoxes of modern forestry practices. Silvicola was produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, and the NFB. An alumnus of the Hot Docs Accelerator program (2018), Jean-Philippe is the recipient of a Leo Award for Best Cinematography on a Documentary Series (2018) as well as an IDRC Award for International Development Journalism (2012). He holds degrees in journalism from Concordia University and anthropology from Université de Montréal.

 

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