A glimpse into the life of Nuxalk Radio will soon be available as a three minute “micro-short” documentary on Knowledge Network.
The Nuxalk Radio film’s B.C. premiere will take place at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, which will stream online June 18 through June 26, 2020. Films are geo-blocked to British Columbia and virtual tickets will be limited. Tickets are available online at www.doxafestival.ca.
Nuxalk Radio is a non-commercial community radio station broadcasting on 91.1 FM from: the Nuxalk village of Q’umk’uts’ (Bella Coola) and worldwide online. Launched si7mt (summer solstice) June 21, 2014 with the slogan: Lhulhamktulhs ala ts’ktaliwalh alh ti s-kulhulmcilh t’ayc n wa sulutilh ats (Broadcasting the laws of the lands and waters).
The documentary was made for a 10-part micro-shorts series for the Knowledge Network called “Behind the Facade: Untold Stories of B.C. Buildings.” The series will broadcast on the Knowledge Network in 2021. Knowledge Network is a publicly-funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia.
“This piece was a bit of a challenge as it was to be part of a series on buildings and buildings within British Columbia. Firstly, we don’t consider Nuxalk Radio or Nuxalk Territory to be a part of BC because we are our own Nation on unceded land,” said Nuxalk Radio manager and film director Banchi Hanuse. “I wanted to say much more. To share why Nuxalk Radio exists, but the film had to be between 2-4 minutes as it was part of a micro-shorts series for the Knowledge Network so we couldn’t thoroughly delve into that story.
“I felt it important to show a bit of what the radio hosts’ personal life is like and what it takes for some of them to even physically make it in the door every morning. Believe or not, some people think the life of a radio host is all glamour and glory; our radio hosts seem to be held to a higher standard in our Nuxalk community because they are public figures; I wanted to give people the opportunity to have more empathy for what they go through in their day-to-day lives, to bring our listeners chipper and positive programming day-after-day.”
The film opens with a dramatic scene of host Sheldon Tallio of the P’alcxit (Wake Up) Morning Show running in the dark on his way to work, emphasizing his early start to the day (the show runs from 7am - 11am weekdays). It continues with scenes of the community engaging with the radio; hosts listening in with the families, families playing “Tuuluts (radio bingo) and listening to Snxakila (Clyde Tallio) give the radio crew Nuxalk language lessons.
To watch the film head to www.doxafestival.ca