By Madeline Dunnett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter THE DISCOURSE
Husband and wife team Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper live and breathe storytelling through documentaries.
A decade ago, after working on various solo projects, the two began collaborating on films that hone in on the complexities of the climate crisis, with their latest sharing stories of communities in the Okanagan Valley from two wildfire seasons.
The film, named Incandescence, is produced and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada and was filmed on the traditional, unceded land of the Syilx Okanagan People. The film includes the story and aftermath of two main fires — the White Rock Lake Fire of 2021 and the McDougall Creek Fire of 2023.
Madeline Dunnett of The Discourse, spoke with Gibsons-based pair about their film. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Madeline Dunnett: Can you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Nova Ami: We’re documentary filmmakers and over the past 10 years, we started collaborating on films that really hone in on the climate crisis … A previous film was called Metamorphosis, which was also a National Film Board co-production. And we’re working on another film right now that’s going to be coming out later this year, called Planet 911.
MD: And you are a husband and wife team, hey?
Both: We are!
Velcrow Ripper: We never run out of things to talk about because we always have these projects. At its best, it’s incredible to share our creative, artistic process. It’s exciting to be in the thick of it, and sometimes it’s totally overwhelming.
NA: There are pros and cons, and we have different strengths that are complimentary, and so I think that that helps make us stronger as a duo. I guess it blurs the lines between when we’re working and when we’re not working so that can be, you know … a thing.
VR: (Laughs) Yeah we’re like, “Is this a date?”
NA: Or like, first thing in the morning we start talking about .125filmmaking.375 and it’s like “I can’t handle that I need my morning coffee first!”
MD: For this documentary, why did you decide to zoom in on wildfire?
NA: When we first started talking about making this film it was late 2018 and the summer before, we were experiencing the wildfire smoke from the fires in Williams Lake all the way here in Gibsons. That was the first time we remember ever feeling that or experiencing the impacts of wildfire.
VR: You could walk down to the shore of the Salish Sea, and it was just socked in with wildfire smoke. The air quality was horrible. It was affecting the city as well, and it felt like something that was so visceral. It was a new phenomenon for it to be so widespread and affecting us so broadly — and clearly tied in with the warming planet.
NA: For our previous film, Metamorphosis, we were filming in California during the aftermath of the big fire at that time the 2015 Valley Fire — and for us, that was also the first time being really up close to an entire community that had been impacted. There are no words to really describe that feeling of just seeing an entire neighborhood burn to the ground.
Since then, fire seasons have gotten more extreme. So, you know, it wasn’t really something that we were projecting to this extent, but just sort of exploring what was happening at that time.
VR: We originally were basing our initial ideas around the fires in Williams Lake. But then we decided to hone in on the Okanagan in particular, because it’s one of the most wildfire prone areas of Canada. And we wanted to do a place-based film that tracked over time, and so we spent … two fire seasons filming there.
NA: And part of our intention was to explore our relationship to fire, and also explore kind of a meditation on fire, you know, what role does it play in our lives? How do we interact with it, and what kind of impact is it having on us?
VR: And also on non-humans. So that was a big part of our interest. You often hear about what’s happening to the human community, but not so much about what’s happening to the animals and the land itself. So we really wanted to dive into the complexities and the many dimensions of fire, yeah.
MD: Watching it, I felt like fire was a character in the story. Would you consider fire to be a character in the story?
NA: We wanted to explore that. One of the questions that we asked our subjects that got some really interesting answers were, you know, if fire was a creature or a force or an animal, what would it be? And we got some really interesting thoughts on that — the metaphors for fire.
MD: Another thing I noticed was there was no external narration, was that a deliberate choice?
NA: Yeah the language of the film isn’t a conventional documentary style, and we recorded our interviews using audio only.
VR: So we decided not to use “talking heads,” which is where you film someone with a camera and you always have that to fall back on, to cut to the person talking. And it was a bold decision to decide, through the whole film, that we’re committed to this cinematic language and there will be no talking heads, and so we had to tell the story visually. So there was no sort of crutch to fall back on. It was a challenge. But, you know, we were also excited to try this new cinematic approach.
NA: And another approach that we took was that we decided that there wasn’t going to be a musical score — that the sound design, the soundscape, would carry us through for the oral experience. And actually, Velcrow was the sound designer on this film.
VR: Music is another security blanket that filmmakers always use. When you need to carry a scene through, put on the music, you know, break out the violins. We didn’t have that and so that was another challenge, and another way of really getting us inside the world of the animals and the world of fire without relying on music.
MD: How did you get some of the shots? Some of them looked like you’re so close to the fire.
NA: A variety of ways, including macro cinematography and slow motion.
VR: We did a whole shoot with an extreme slow-motion camera.
NA: With the fire, really slow it down and see what it does.
VR: As a character.
NA: Also, one of our subjects used to be a camera person living in the Monte Lake area, and he films everything, so he was there.
VR: On the first day of the White Rock Lake Fire he was in the forest right where it started.
NA: His footage is incorporated in his story. And then we also had a couple of B.C. wildfire fighters who are also videographers. And so we worked with them to capture footage in places where we couldn’t go.
VR: And then B.C. wildfire also took us out on the fire line, and dressed us up in full protective gear and we went out to film. So there were all these different approaches. And we also filmed during prescribed burns as well. So all those different ways combined creates the various dimensions of the film.
MD: As you filmed `Incandescence`, do you feel like your view on fire changed?
VR: Yeah, I think one of the biggest ways for me that it changed was we went in with this notion of fire as this kind of evil villain force, and we started to learn more about the Indigenous practices around fire and the respect that they have for fire, and also the respect that the firefighters that we met, many of whom were also actually Indigenous firefighters, have for fire. The main firefighter crew is an Indigenous-led firefighting outfit.
So that, I think, was a big shift of understanding that fire is like this shape shifter, and it can also be healing for the land. In the Okanagan, there are species of pine cones that only open after a fire, so fire is needed.
And what we didn’t realize was that the settler approach to banning cultural burning and outlawing cultural burning by Indigenous people actually created this massive fuel load in the forest, which contributes to the emergence of these mega fires, particularly in the time of climate change and bad logging practices as well, compounded with tree farms.
NA: So during the course of making the film, what we saw happening was that the wildfire agencies are starting to partner with the Indigenous communities to work with fire and fuel mitigation and Indigenous practices. And that wasn’t something that was very prevalent in the early days of making this film. So that was interesting to see unfold.
MD: Are you seeing a big change in terms of people understanding and respecting Indigenous controlled burns more than you were when you first started .125this project.375?
VR: One hundred per cent we’re seeing more and more understanding of that. We’re seeing it come into the common vision and understanding. And it’s something that people have been talking about for years and years and years and it’s finally starting to be understood. And it’s one element to the overall puzzle, but an important one to understand.
MD: If somebody was curious to get involved in their community if their community was impacted by fire, do you have any suggestions with where they could start?
NA: Every place is so different.
VR: For one thing, everyone should start off by learning about FireSmart. There are free Firesmart people who will come around and look at your house. We did it here, actually.
That’s a great step. But, you know, there are so many different ways. Another way is to get to know your neighbours, and one important thing is to find out who’s the most vulnerable, because if fire should hit you need to check in on those people and make sure they have the support they need to get out.
NA: Here on the Sunshine Coast there are people who meet to talk about emergency preparedness, what that would entail, and particular to the specific community where people live. So starting something like that would be a good place. And part of that is really knowing, getting to know the people who live with you, near you.
VR: I feel like community in general is one of the most important elements. And mental health as well, to make sure people aren’t alone in this, you know, we need to be together.
MD: How were you able to take care of your own mental health while filming `Incandescence’?
VR: That’s an important question for documentary filmmakers in general because we do encounter a lot of traumatic situations we’re often holding space for people to share their stories.
For myself, I did a film called Scared Sacred, where I traveled to the ground zeros of the world. From that time on, I learned that compassion is actually very healing. Holding that space of compassion allows me to make these kinds of films. It’s feeling that compassion, and it can be a real service. When you do an interview in the right way with somebody, people are saying things that they haven’t had a chance to say before. So if you can create a safe space for them, it can be a healing space. I think when you have that feeling, I think that really helps you keep going because you’re doing something that’s of service.
NA: I think really being able to hold the container for people, in order to do that you need to work on being grounded and feeling regulated and also taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually and just being about to create that safe space for people. In order to do that, we have to feel grounded and centered ourselves.
So we have our own practices around that, but when we work on these projects that have so much meaning, it really helps to keep going. It’s a lot to carry, over time, with this project … and to just really sit with the material and subject matter, and to keep reading about it and to keep being in the environment, you know, it’s a lot.
VR: But I think also in this time of this climate emergency that we’re in, one of the ways to cope is to find a way to take action in whatever way you can. And for us, making films is our way of being of service and taking action, and that, in itself, is incredibly helpful.
NA: Yeah. It’s a very strong motivator
VR: This is a way to process it. And, you know, we’re receiving all this wisdom all the time. People are sharing with us how they cope with trauma, and the trauma is a huge aspect of wildfires, and there’s so many dimensions to that. And so we’re learning as well.
VR: Yeah, and there are so many dimensions to wildfire. So including the way evacuations are held, those can be done in a way that’s totally insensitive to the Indigenous experience, where it can, it can re-traumatize that feeling of forced relocation, those kinds of things. This is actually in the other film we’re working on, but there’s this real need for sensitivity from first responders as well, which is why, you know, working with Indigenous firefighters was so great because they are also part of the community that they’re protecting.
And I think that’s also a big element of the film is that communities are really the way forward, and coming together as communities, and knowing our neighbors and mutual aid response, because the government agencies are going to be increasingly overextended, so we’re going to really need to look out for each other and support each other.
And that’s also one of the things as a documentary filmmaker that keeps us going, is finding the helpers, finding the hope in the crisis, and that’s what we’re always looking for.
