CEREMONY
For 26 years, the ooligan have not returned to the Bella Coola River. Through the crackling airwaves of a ramshackled Nuxalk Radio, a community sets out to find out why and what they uncover is going to crack the Valley open. As broadcasts pull back the layers, ancestral spirits stir alongside the living. Inspired, a family defiantly builds a home in their emptied village and refuses to leave when authorities order them out. A Nuxalk biologist dreams of the fish’s return. And beneath the river’s surface, something is already moving.
At Pender PR we have had the immense privilege of working with writer, director and producer Banchi Hanuse on two of her feature length documentary projects. We boarded CEREMONY for SXSW and continued on the journey with the film to Hot Docs, Bentonville, Sydney and DocEdge.
CEREMONY won the Audience Award at SXSW, a DGC Award at Hot Docs and the First Nations Award at the Sydney Film Festival.
“Her visuals are beautiful, almost meditative in gently focusing on the stunning natural beauty of the river, mountain ranges and forests of the valley. And animation is used to convey ideas and tells stories of the past as well.”
— Carole Horst, VARIETY
“Covering sweeping scenery, stunning mountains, and the river that started the film’s journey from idea to screen, the trailer for Ceremony showcases the sprawling landscape that the Nuxalk Nation has long called home in present-day British Columbia. As viewers will see, theirs is a story that colonizers attempted to erase after bringing smallpox to their village in hopes of committing a mass genocide. Painting a deeply dark and grotesque picture, we learn about the folks who struggled for survival — sometimes even being forced to dig their own graves amidst the breakout. But, from the small group of survivors, their descendants proudly hold the atrocities that plagued their past in solemn remembrance and pledge to continue their legacy on land that has always belonged to them.”
— Collider Trailer Exclusive / Ceremony for SXSW