4k, colour, 22′ What touches us when we are amongst wild animals like the birds of the Fraser River Delta in British Columbia? They do not touch us physically. They seem, at best indifferent to our presence; perhaps they are annoyed. Do they even look at us when their gaze seems turned our way? We cannot know. Nonetheless we love these creatures, and hope that they will persist. “As Grey Falls” wanders delicately in the places these birds call home, wondering where a human’s place is in their worlds. “As Grey Falls” is a film of current urgency, now that the Canadian government has approved the controversial, and misguided, plan to dramatically expand the shipping terminal on Roberts Bank, a vital area of habitat on the Fraser River delta in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Roberts Bank is year round home to tens of thousands of birds, and transient home to millions of migratory birds, for whom the Fraser River delta is a crucial resting and fuelling point on their way north and south during their annual migrations that stretch from northern Alaska and eastern Russia to Chile and Argentina. While “As Grey Falls” is not explicitly about this expansion, it is a call to know and love this area of which too few people are aware, despite the fact that millions live within touching distance. “As Grey Falls” was shot in the Fraser River delta in the winter. From the fog that suffuses the landscape the film draws lessons about the human relationship to the animals of the delta–above all birds–and our capacity to know about their existences. It patiently observes these animals, and the landscape where they live, as it changes before our very eyes and ears in the wake of historical and ongoing human encroachment into this ecologically important, biologically magnificent, and mostly unprotected, area. Note: the film is shot entirely in colour–only one shot has any desaturation applied. That shot, near the middle of the film, should be obvious. Otherwise, the images that seem black and white are not: the black and white effect is produced entirely by the fog.
