Nechako
It Will Be A Big River Again
Nechako is a crucial documentary that follows two Indigenous Nations fighting for our collective future. When the Kenney Dam was built in the 1950s, the Nechako River was forever changed. The Stellat’en and Saik’uz Nations embarked on a groundbreaking legal proceeding against the Canadian government and Rio Tinto Alcan that lasted over a decade—a battle that continues today. Following community members living day to day on the river while they take on powerful institutions, Nechako is an urgent call to action to restore a river and a way of life.
70% of water from the Nechako river is diverted.
When the Kenney Dam was built in the 1950s, it diverted 70 percent of the Nechako River into an artificial reservoir, severely impacting the lives of local Stellat’en and Saik’uz Nations. What followed were decades of resistance, including legal actions against the Canadian federal and provincial governments and Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of a global mining conglomerate.
Urgent Call to Action
Nechako follows the people fighting today to restore a river and a way of life: Nations going up against industry, community leaders advocating for their people, Elders documenting their histories and community members living off the land. An urgent call to action, Patrick’s film asks what survival looks like when it serves everyone, in a story 70 years in the making—a story of hope and resistance against all odds, amidst large-scale environmental destruction and despite the will of powerful institutions
Meet the Team
Lyana Patrick
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Lyana Patrick is an award-winning, Vancouver-based director, writer and researcher from the Stellat’en First Nation. Committed to elevating Indigenous stories, she studied film at the Native Voices Program, University of Washington. Her acclaimed short films A Place to Belong and The Train Station have been showcased at prestigious festivals like Hot Docs, DOC NYC and the Vancouver International Film Festival, earning her recognition for her powerful, community-centred storytelling.
Writer and Director
Jessica Hallenbeck
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Jessica Hallenbeck is a documentary filmmaker and community planner, and the owner of Lantern Films, founded in 2015 out of a desire to make critically important and visually stunning documentaries. With an undergraduate degree in Media and Film from Queen’s University, a master’s degree in Community Planning and a PhD in Geography, Jessica has worked in documentary for close to 20 years and her work cuts across films, exhibitions, and publications. Her producing credits include the Knowledge Network series Behind the Facade (2021); Spirit Emulsion (2021), directed and co-produced by Siku Allooloo; Nuxalk Radio (2020), directed by Banchi Hanuse, and the feature documentary The Empress of Vancouver (2022), directed by Dave Rodden-Shortt (TELUS and LevelFilm).
Producer (Lantern Films)
Tyler Hagan
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Tyler Hagan is a Michif and Canadian filmmaker based on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in Vancouver, BC. His producing credits include Kathleen Hepburn’s feature debut, Never Steady, Never Still (2017); The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019), by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn; Until Branches Bend (2022), by Sophie Jarvis; Seagrass, by Meredith Hama-Brown (2023); and Inedia, by Elizabeth Cairns (2024). In 2022, Tyler was awarded the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award by the Canadian Media Producers Association. All of Tyler’s films have played at the Toronto International Film Festival, and four of them were subsequently named to TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten.
Producer (Experimental Forest Films)
Teri Snelgrove
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Teri Snelgrove is a producer at the BC & Yukon Studio. Most recently, she produced Unarchived by Hayley Gray and Elad Tzadok, A Motorcycle Saved My Life by Lori Lozinski and Into Light by Sheona McDonald. With Shirley Vercruysse, Teri co-produced Someone Like Me by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor, and the animated projects Two Apples by Bahram Javahery and Zeb’s Spider by Alicia Eisen and Sophie Jarvis. Teri is a Newfoundlander, and a graduate of the film/video program at Emily Carr University.
Producer (National Film Board of Canada)
Executive Producer (National Film Board of Canada)
Shirley Vercruysse
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Since 2014, Shirley Vercruysse is an Executive Producer with the National Film Board of Canada.
Based in Vancouver she leads a team producing documentaries in Western Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and Yukon).
Recent releases from her production unit include the feature-length documentaries WaaPaKe (Tomorrow), directed by Jules Arita Koostachin; Anything for Fame, directed by Tyler Funk; Laydown Your Heart, directed by Marie Clements; Unarchived, directed by Haley Gray and Elad Tzadok; and Voices Across the Water, directed by Fritz Mueller.
Prior to joining the NFB, Shirley was based in Calgary where she produced independent Canadian feature films, fiction and documentary, including the award-winning Gary Burns titles waydowntown, Radiant City and Mike Dowe’s Fubar II.
Credits
EDITORS
Milena Salazar
Erin Cumming
ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSITION
Jesse Zubot
PRODUCERS
Jessica Hallenbeck
Tyler Hagan
Teri Snelgrove
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Jessica Hallenbeck
Tyler Hagan
Shirley Vercruysse
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Sean Stiller
A FILM BY
Lyana Patrick
