SYNOPSIS
Follow Canadian activist painter Kyle Scheurmann as he canoes through some of Vancouver Island's most endangered forests, using his vibrant art to tell the story of an environmental crisis that remains largely invisible to the public.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I have found in life that often the moments we are faced with the worst situations imaginable, we are also gifted the most valuable lessons. For me, one of these was learning the power of emotional memories as my Mum battled Alzheimer’s.

Coming into this film, my background was mostly sports documentaries. I appreciated nature, but wouldn’t have ever described myself as an outdoorsman, or an activist, or someone who felt like they had the tools to impact the global ecological crisis in a meaningful way.

I was inspired and motivated to dig deeper into a captivating and talented person - Kyle Scheurmann - who drew me in with his emotional intelligence, his sense of adventure into remote parts of the wilderness, and the colour of his paintings. But what really intrigued me was his self-identification as a journalist, not just a painter.

As we talked through the potential of making a documentary together, I envisioned thoughtful and beautiful scenes of Kyle discussing his painting process, his love for the environment, and some of the challenges he faced along the way.

Then last week, I had my first taste of sifting through the ferns of secret forests, which left pollen on my camera lens. Kyle and I hiked through a basketball-court-sized crater, exploded in an ancient forest by loggers to choke out a river for financial gain. I saw first-hand the beauty of thousand-year-old trees, and felt the energy transfer when I placed my palms on their bark. Then later that day, I stood in a clear cut, choking on clouds of dust as a logging truck passed me by, camera still in hand.

These “spaces” - forests in northern Vancouver Island, became “places” to me through the power of emotional memories. And what I learned from Mum’s last few years, is that even when the mundane and mediocre recollections are snatched from our mind, the moments with emotion attached often hold on.

My vision for this film is to continue Kyle’s work of “placemaking” - the practice of turning spaces into places that people can feel a connection to through viewing his art. Logging a remote forest in British Columbia feels like extracting resources from a “space” as part of Canada’s indispensable economy. Logging the forest you grew up climbing trees in, or proposed to your partner, or camped for the last five years, that holds gravity. It’s deeply upsetting. It draws an emotional response and inspires action.

I really believe now that through telling Kyle’s story, and framing it around his intrigue, the beauty of the locations he paints from, and the quirkiness of a man casting his canoe into remote lakes with just an easel and brushes, that we have the ability to alert people - like me - who previously had little to no understanding of the devastation taking place on Vancouver Island, and the impact it’s having on the rest of the world.

Much like Kyle’s paintings, A Beautiful Resistance is a film with conservationist calls to action, disguised in beauty and wonder. Without feeling overtly combative, I hope it will have the ability to impact the climate war.

I’m still grappling with who I’m making this film for most - my Mum, a Canadian child of the 60’s, who spent her life unapologetically speaking out against global injustices; the selfish storyteller inside me, who’s ready to chase a new adventure; or my newborn son, who will have to live with the climate choices our generation has made.

Maybe it’s all three.