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Talent On Tap – Nature Entwined Showcases at the Whistler Film Festival

The Whistler Film Festival showcases films from around the world but there is also a category to showcase local filmmakers/issues/topics and 3 amazing ladies picked up the torch and ran with it! Along the way, they pretty much formed a small army of women from all walks of life that had one thread in common, acting as a compass for their love, bond and impact on nature and nature’s impact on them.

 

Nature Entwined is premiering at the Whistler Film Festival and is part of the Sea to Sky Shorts Showcase. It is the brainchild of Amanda Palmer (producer, director and photographer), Lauren Bridle (Producer, Cinematographer and editor) and Krista Rand (producer, Grand Unified Theory) and together, all three ladies bring a wealth of experience and their own unique box of tools from past projects to create a sensational, spiritual, nurturing, incredibly feminine and soul expressive film, that celebrates women of all ages, backgrounds and own personal connection to nature. 

      

NATURE ENTWINED is a short film and visual love letter to womanhood and how it is intimately connected with the Squamish landscape,” explains director and producer Amanda Palmer. “We wanted to celebrate how local women spend time in nature, and show how we’re connected not only to the land – but to each other. 

 

Whistler Film Festival runs virtually from December 1 – 20, with the Sea to Sky Shorts Showcase having premiered December 10. 

 

I had the incredible opportunity to speak with two-thirds of this multi-talented team. Amanda Palmer and Krista Rand joined me on a Zoom meeting and it was amazingly wonderful and inspiring. 

 

HNM “This was a beautiful film that has a very bubble-bath feel to it. It felt much longer than 4 minutes because there is so much content that unfolds with an easy tempo. What prompted the making of this film?”

AMANDA “I would say Krista was the one that prompted this film. Krista was part of the Producers Lab at the Whistler Film Fest, so she knew of all the competitions that were happening. We’ve known each other a long time, so she reached out to me and said we should work on something together, we should brainstorm – I was immediately, ‘Yes, I would love to work with you!’ I immediately thought of our co-producer/cinematographer/editor, Lauren Bridle whom I’ve gotten to know really well, through hikes together and I knew she’d be a great addition. We all got together and brainstormed and talked about the female experience. This film was a great excuse to really get to know the other amazing women in the community. We wanted to do something for us (women) while making a beautiful film about nature and the relationship they had with it.”

KRISTA “I’ve always been looking for excuses to collaborate with Amanda, so once she learned more about the Sea to Sky project, she said she couldn’t enter it because she lived in Port Coquitlam but that she could help. Once she contacted Lauren and we all hopped onto a Zoom call, it was instant and very clear that we were going to push forward pretty fast.”

AMANDA “I think that’s the mark of a great producer; Krista was very quickly able to get everyone excited about it, but we also knew she’d be there to back us up. I’m also a producer but to work with another producer is such an amazing education because you can learn.”

 

HNM “How did you go about divvying up the producer tasks?”

KRISTA “It was pretty clear, once we began talks to see who wanted to do what. Both Lauren and Amanda shoot, so it really came down to who was going to direct it. Amanda had stepped forward and it wasn’t a role I was willing to take on. There was such a collaborative effort between the three of us and sharing the producing role made us better and stronger together. With Amanda directing, it meant taking a backseat to shooting. We had decided that we wanted some words/poem to go along with it. We reached out on Facebook, which was a great resource for casting and finding our poet. Savanna Jones Martin quickly showed her face, her light and she was so grounded within herself and with her connection to nature and Squamish. We had met with her to suggest everything that we thought should be in it. She did a first draft of the poem and we were so overwhelmed with the beauty of it all. Savanna had a huge part in telling the story, visually.”

 

AMANDA“The collaboration with Savanna was very important because as the cast came together, Savanna would write about their activities. We had a young horseback rider, who is a 13-year old girl, so Savanna wrote to that. A hiker standing in 70 km winds at the top of a mountain – Savanna wrote to that, so there was some back and forth; we were very lucky to have her work with us.”

 

 

HNM “How did you go about putting the word out for women to be in it?”

AMANDA “We used Facebook to get the word out and found a couple of Squamish female focus groups, adventure groups. We left it pretty open ended because we weren’t really sure who we were going to get but we knew we only had a limited filming window, so the task had to fit into it. We were like, ‘Women of Squamish that love nature…’ and the response was amazing! We asked them all to send a self-described video on what they love to do in nature. We wanted to be sure that we had diversity in age, diversity in backgrounds and diversity in what people love to do outside. We hit the jackpot with the women that applied and are in the film. The cast put a lot of trust in us and we’re very thankful for that.”

KRISTA “Another thing that was cool about that, was the sense of community that happened in Squamish. People would see the post and even if it wasn’t for them, they knew someone that should apply or they’d be tagging other friends and family. It was so beautiful to see the community come together like that.”         

 

HNM “Now Krista, I remember a great feature film that you co-produced years ago with David Ray called Grand Unified Theory. Did that experience help you become a stronger producer?”        

KRISTA “That film really helped to ground me into producing and the type of producing I wanted to do. I really love producing, it’s where my heart is and that film still holds a special place in my heart. David really did set the bar for me to maintain a level of trust, collaboration and thankfulness. Making films is not easy, whether that’s a 5-minute short on the beauty of Squamish, the women, the nature or an hour and a half feature film. Everyone involved is so crucial and so important in the process and you have to be very grateful – because they don’t have to be there taking time away from their family, their friends or other things they enjoy doing to help out on a low-budget passion project.”

 

HNM “When you were outlining what the film would look like, did you immediately see it as 5 subjects?”

AMANDA “That was an evolution. We did toy about it being one person’s journey but we would’ve needed to find people that looked similar at different age ranges. We discussed it further and thought it would be more valuable to open it up to multiple women and perspectives of nature. The thesis of the film is the relationship that women have with nature. It doesn’t have to be one thing either, it can run the gamut and be so many different things especially during the pandemic – it’s really brought the relationship with nature to the forefront. Savanna’s words in the poem describe it very well, when she says ‘I have an impact on this land and this land has an impact on me.’ Those words in the poem were exactly the message we wanted to share in the thesis. The land impacts our moods and feeds us but at the same time, we want to have a positive impact back onto the land and seeing how different women do that in their daily lives.”       

 

HNM “Was this film shot in November?”

KRISTA “Yes, we did it over 2 weekends. The first of November was a Sunday, so Lauren and Amanda went out and shot the mom and daughter. We shot the rest of the film the following weekend and then one day on Tuesday, so 4 days of shooting. Lauren and Emily wanted some drone footage, which elevated the film.”    

 

HNM “After Whistler, where does Nature Entwined go from there?”

AMANDA “We’re going to wait and see what the feedback is like. We do have some ideas of where we would like to take it next. Our goal is to have as many people see it as possible. It could get tricky however, because it is geared toward Squamish and West Coast Canada… and we did not want to apologize for that. We wanted to show the beauty of Squamish and with the Sea to Sky showcase the film was built specifically for Whistler and this program. We’re so thankful to have our premiere at Whistler Film Festival and whatever happens afterwards is a bonus.”

KRISTA “I hope the scenes in the film will resonate with women across Canada, North America and the world that can also get out to nature and feel these same feelings.”

 

HNM “What type of camera did you use to capture all the footage?”

AMANDA “I believe it was a Sony A7 III – its one of the mirrorless models.”

 

The ladies could not let me go without giving a shout out to Lauren and her tremendous contributions, hard work and dedication to the project. In addition to co-producing, she was the cinematographer and sound designer as well. She’s been there for all the production meetings, shoot days as well as the days where we had to quickly edit everything together. Her fingerprints are all over this film and she did an amazing job and they couldn’t have done it without her. The images that she captured were absolutely incredible.         

 

Savanna Jones Martin is a Composer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist whose words resonate throughout the film, giving a voice to that personal experience every woman shares with nature.

 

Although Amanda has only moved to Squamish in April with her husband, it has had a profound impact on her when it comes to feeling welcomed. She says she’s never felt more at home in her life and by making this film it was an opportunity to imbed herself into the community and give back visually by highlighting the amazing splendor and beauty Squamish has to offer.   

 

The ladies also wanted to give a shout out to Sunflower bakery because they provided them all with some really nice breakfast treats in the morning with a huge urn of coffee to start their day. During the pandemic, Sunflower remained open with distancing, masks, safety regulations. Able to see the staff and Jamie (owner) every couple of days gave them a sense of normalcy during such strange times and they are forever grateful for all their support. 

 

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