Tsleil-Waututh Nation
Land Stewardship & Cultural Resurgence
The Challenge
When a new team member at Tsleil-Waututh Nation, someone who had worked with River & Ridge previously, joined the Nation in a communications role, they saw an opportunity to bring documentary storytelling to two goals at once: re-engaging community members, and creating public-facing content that could build broader understanding of the Nation's history, challenges, resurgence, and stewardship of their lands.
The Approach
The process was collaborative from the outset. Early conversations explored a range of formats — scripted narrative, interview-based documentary, animation — before settling on an interview-based approach as the strongest way to capture authentic, lived experience directly from community members. Tsleil-Waututh Nation had full control over who was interviewed, with participants representing Elders, leadership, and stewardship roles across the community. At every stage of the edit, the project was circulated back to the Nation for review, feedback, and approval.
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Filming brought its own challenges, much of the work took place outdoors, from drone footage to following stewardship crews on the land, which meant adapting on the fly to weather, equipment, and unpredictable field conditions.
The Films
People of the Inlet: A historical and cultural film blending original footage with archival material, drawing on photographs, maps, and historic footage to trace the Nation's story.
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The Significance of the Indian River Watershed: A film on land stewardship, exploring the watershed's importance both to Tsleil-Waututh's origin story and to the community today — including sustainable forestry practices and the restoration of marine and wildlife habitat.
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The Wolves Return: Made roughly a year later, this scripted film shares the Nation's origin story and the loss and return of wolves to their territory — and what that return means for both the land and the people.
The Outcome
The films have been used in community workshops and presentations, shared across social media, and embedded directly into staff email signatures. These three films have reached significantly higher engagement than the Nation's past content, a meaningful signal of how strongly the stories resonated with their intended audience.
Chris is not only an absolute professional when it comes to filmmaking and managing projects from start to finish, he's also a delight to work with. His creative vision and skilled execution allowed Tsleil-Waututh Nation to reach new audiences.
