The Flower and The Flood

Following the seasonal cycle of a saffron farm based in the Fraser Valley, the film explores unmechanized labor through harvesting the delicate crocus stamen by hand. After an atmospheric river decimates the flourishing saffron crop in 2021, the flood waters temporarily return Semá:th Xó:tsa to the valley more than a century after its forced draining. The film traces the interconnected history of this sacred lake with the rebuilding of the saffron crop; cultivating community and the most expensive spice in the world. Collaborating with the saffron crocus and other plants through eco-processing and analogue processes, the family garden offers us a microcosm of connections – to each other and our planet.

Film Maker
Gonzalez, Elisa
Year
2026
Country
Canada
Length
26
Language
English
Category
(De)colonization, Agriculture, cameraless, Canada, Childhood, Community, Culture, Diaspora, Earth, Ecology, Education, environment, Families, Food, Identity, Immigration, Indigenous, Labour, Landscape, Language, Memory, Nature, Oral Histories, Photography, science/medicine, Society, spirituality, Sustainability, Time + Space, Violence, Work about Women, Youth
Genre
documentary, experimental, hand-processed, short

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