A new Yukon film invites audiences to reconnect with nature and what it’s trying to teach us
It seems like every day our lives become busier and more digital. With the proliferation of social media, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart everything, it can often feel as if we are constantly wired. If you’re like 46 per cent of newspaper readers, you may even be reading this article online right now.
As our lives become increasingly online, we see a growing body of research pointing out how detrimental this is for our physical and mental health. One study tied social media use to decreased, disrupted, and delayed sleep, which is associated with depression, memory loss and poor academic performance. Another study labeled a phenomenon called Digital Burnout among office workers, which exhibits as fatigue or depression stemming from digital overload.
Confronted with this reality, two local filmmakers are choosing to refocus our minds and energy back on the natural world – in the mountains, out on the river, and literally anywhere that’s far away from our screens.
Melaina Sheldon and David Hamelin are the creators of Northlore, a hybrid documentary that will have its world premiere at the 2025 Available Light Film Festival. Through this film, which was co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, five Yukoners who were transformed by their experiences with nature will share their very real, larger-than-life stories.
“We live in such a technologically-driven world these days,” said Hamelin, “that it’s really important for us to unplug and go back into nature. There are deeper things going on there that affect not only your mental health but your spiritual health.”
The film began with a seed in the form of a story from Yukoner Gary Sidney Johnson about his first moose hunt. Johnson’s story is one of the five featured in the film that shares connections forged between the people and the magic of the Yukon.
After hearing Johnson’s story, Sheldon and Hamelin knew there was something deeper that they wanted to explore.
“We knew there were some other stories that are similar to this,” said Melaina. “We know that other people have had these kinds of epic journeys of healing and growth and awakening and transformation. And experiencing that ourselves – like my own experience growing up in the Yukon, Dave growing up in the Yukon – it’s just inherent in our lives.”
While Yukoners may feel these experiences are just an ordinary part of their lives – nothing to get too excited about, Sheldon and Hamelin knew there was something more to them that needed to be celebrated and shared.
“There are all these magical elements within your journey out into nature,” said Sheldon. “It’s something about being here – being on the land – that is going to transform you. When you go out into the wilderness, you’re going into the unknown, regardless of what you’re going for. It’s this brave step into the unknown and you’re not sure what you’re going to be met with there. But it’ll transform you, and it’ll probably make you feel good.”
As we continue our immersion into the digital world and it becomes harder to tease apart what is human and what is machine, Sheldon and Hamelin feel that this is the perfect time to be reminded of the powerful relationship that exists between humans and nature.
“With artificial intelligence and as we go further into technology, [we need] to be reminded of that spiritual element, that spiritual capacity of, of human beings,” said Sheldon. “[In Northlore], each one of these people was somewhere either before technology or vastly separated from it. There’s a very symbiotic relationship between the natural world and humans.”
“It should be an integrated part of our lives,” shared Hamelin, “and not just something that we go to when we need it. it should just kind of be there as part of our everyday lives. I feel like that’s what makes us more healthy, more happy, more in tune with ourselves and the world.”
While Hamelin has been making films since he was a junior high student in Whitehorse, Northlore is Sheldon’s first film. She’s excited to share these uniquely Yukon stories and feels that they offer important insights that everyone can learn from.
“These are like the new legends,” said Sheldon. “We have legends from this land from the First Nations people here. But it’s time for some new ones and this is how I feel legends are born. You take these magical, realistic stories and over 20 years it’s going to get even grander and bigger. Within these stories are so many teachings and knowledge. Just like a legend, you have to pay attention, and you will learn something.”
For both filmmakers, it was a lengthy and organic process full of learning, re-imaging, and creative problem solving. The project was full of unexpected twists and turns and evolved every step of the way. With so many Yukoners being involved in the project – from Gary Sidney Johnson, Elisabeth Pilon, Melissa Matheson, Michael Code, and Dennis Shorty, who each shared their stories in the film to Jeremy Parkins who composed the score and much of the camera crew, the Available Light Film Festival felt like the perfect place for the world premiere.
“ ALFF has grown into such a prominent film festival here in Yukon and every year it just continues to grow and lots of people from across Canada covet this festival because of its location and the allure of the Yukon,” said Hamelin. “To have a film made in the Yukon by Yukoners playing for a Yukon audience…. It’s a great honour, and I couldn’t think of a more suitable place for it to start going out into the world.”
“The film and all of our storytellers are Yukon-based,” added Sheldon. “It just makes sense for it to be at home.”Northlore will be opening the 2025 Available Light Film Festival on Friday, February 7 at 6:30 pm at the Yukon Arts Centre. It will be premiering with another Yukon-made film, Saturday, directed by Jessica Hall and co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
