FALLING

Steve Phare, a lifelong logger from British Columbia, is a man of contradictions. Although he cuts down trees he also has a reverence for the woods. He looks down on the local native population and their claims to the ground he is about to log and yet is part Indian himself, a fact he is deeply proud of. These seemingly incompatible personal standpoints allow the complex issues around logging to be approached with a poetic sensibility. Steve Phare's ambivalence in many ways mirrors our own: on one hand expressing our desire to protect the environment, and yet on the other not wanting to sacrifice the luxuries of the modem world.

Unlike many environmental films. Falling does not line up strongly judgemental opinions. Instead, it takes the viewer into the lives of several people who live in the same area but, when it comes to logging, have opposite interests. In an atmospheric and observant style the film exposes the lives and works of these characters.

The film develops its story in a non-narrative, action-driven way and its style is one of atmospheres with increasing visual impact. It confronts the viewer with their own opinions on the issue of logging, the environment and Indian land claims, and the film questions easy standpoints made on complex social issues.

Falling is by turns a gently lyrical character study and a 'non-polemic' depiction of the complicated environmental and cultural issues arising from felling trees. The film was shot around Lillooet Lake in British Columbia by Dutch writer/director Thijs Bayens. Its superb photography, by Academy Award nominee Anton Van Munster, makes it a truly amazing cinematic experience.