Just a month after the NSWA premiered its seven-part documentary film, A River Runs Through Us: The Story of the North Saskatchewan River, we sat down to talk with filmmaker Ryan Northcott and the NSWA’s Kaila Belovich.
As a marketing specialist, Ryan Northcott never imagined he’d turn a lifelong pastime and passion into a paycheque. After finishing his business degree in BC, he returned to his hometown of Edmonton to help a family friend who was launching a full-scale film production company. “I didn't really have any designs to go into production, but I’d always loved ‘the industry’ and was a big consumer of content, films, and TV. I started helping my friend build her company pretty much from the ground up.” In 2015, they created Against the Ropes, a documentary series that follows an Edmonton Boxing Gym through the ups and downs of competitive amateur boxing. The series won an AMPIA Award for Best Documentary Series.
When Northcott decided to launch his own company - Panoramic Media - in 2020, he did some smaller projects to diversify and build his client base. During this time, he collaborated with the NSWA’s Mary Ellen Shain on riparian health projects at a few Alberta lakes. He also worked with NSWA’s Kelsie Norton while she was with Nature Alberta. In the fall of 2023, Northcott says he was lucky to receive the Request for Proposal package from NSWA and thought, “I already have a good relationship with the organisation. Maybe I’ll throw my hat in the ring.”
SCOTT MILLAR ON EPCOR’S ROLE
The NSWA’s Executive Director, Scott Millar, says, “When Steph Neufeld at EPCOR first suggested creating a documentary on the North Saskatchewan River, we embraced the chance to tell a bigger story than we usually can. This river is at the heart of our work, and bringing together watershed science and community voices in one film felt like a natural way to show why it matters to all of us.”
KAILA BELOVICH’S ROLE
Kaila Belovich remembers how she was brought into the project simply by “being in the right place at the right time”. Millar asked Belovich to work on a Request for Proposal for a filmmaker and in the fall of 2023, they chose Northcott to create the film. As Belovich, Millar, and Northcott met to draw up a plan for the film, Belovich drew up a rough version of the outline that was needed for the script.
Northcott says that Belovich was invaluable to the project. Being unsure about the storyline coming into the project, Northcott was able to rely on Belovich’s outline and distillation of the episodes. He says they didn’t deviate that far from her original topics and flow. He jokingly called her the Executive Producer because she organized interviews, largely organized the shoot locations and was “a guiding force behind a lot of the production, bringing a lot of knowledge and connections.”
FILM’S ORIGINS: STEPH NEUFELD
The idea for a documentary film was the brainchild of EPCOR Watershed Manager, Stephanie Neufeld. Early in 2024, Neufeld joined the meetings and the work of developing the full script became a collaboration between Neufeld, Northcott, and Belovich. “Having Steph on board was a great asset because of her knowledge of watershed science and her ability to distill technical information into something more digestible,” says Belovich. "For example, she was able to take information from EPCOR’s Source Water Protection Plan and make it more accessible to the public using a different medium.”
With two decades of scientific watershed knowledge, Neufeld recommended some of the experts who could help shape the audience’s understanding of watersheds, including Dr. Duane Froese, who spoke about the river’s geology, Dr. David Sauchyn speaking on the hydroclimate changes for the river, biologists Shari Clare and Mike Sullivan, and local celebrity naturalist John Acorn.
MANY PERSPECTIVES CREATED THE STORY
The film’s title speaks to the purpose of the film. A River Runs Through Us weaves a story about the river together with human experience and impacts. While Neufeld ensured the scientific aspects of the watershed were captured, Northcott believes the interviews with various experts allowed the film’s message to be more crafted. Belovich feels that they struck a good balance between hearing people’s experiential relationship with the water, as with the Indigenous Knowledge Circle or interviews with landowners, interspersing the science and data, as well as showcasing wonderful landscapes. The beautiful cinematography moved the film adeptly from sweeping panoramas to the intricacies of a flower, a fish, or an aquatic invertebrate.
THE RIVER AS A CHARACTER
When asked about the river being portrayed as a character in the film, Northcott says that was an intentional goal of the film. “When you look at a character journey, you set up the conflict and move to the conflict resolution, so we feel good at the end. We tried to portray that kind of mirroring for the river’s journey.” He elaborates, beginning with the river’s geological beginnings 16,000 years ago, then its various climate cycles. With broader settlement came issues for the river. The larger story is how people have or are overcoming that conflict “by taking a new approach - or an approach in general - to study the river and what we have done to it. Obviously, that story isn’t complete, it will be ongoing forever. At this stage, we can say the river is generally in good health, but there are still efforts that need to be made.”
SPONTANEITY & ADAPTATION
One of the challenges that arose in the project also led to a personal highlight for Belovich. An application she’d submitted to National Parks to fly a drone over the headwaters was immediately turned down. This meant spending the extra money to fly a helicopter over the area instead. Nonetheless, Belovich called the experience of flying over the river’s headwaters in the Columbia Icefield a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Similarly, while some of the shots were planned, Northcott says that many were chosen spontaneously. We’d say, “The sun's coming up over here this morning. Let's go to this little area we saw on Google Maps and see if we can get a nice sunrise.”
A personal letdown for Northcott was not getting to hike to the Saskatchewan Glacier for some film footage. “Due to the forest fire situation in Jasper, that whole section of the park was closed down, so you know the guides weren't able to accommodate us, understandably.” He adds, “But we obviously got to fly over the glacier with the helicopter, which was very cool.”
It was literally much cooler than Northcott had anticipated, as the helicopter pilot threw him a bunch of extra parkas and said, “You’re gonna need these.” And he was right. Despite the warm 20-degree temperatures on the ground, it was extremely cold flying above the snowy mountains with the door wide open.
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES: NORTHCOTT
In terms of moments that changed Northcott’s perception of the river, he says there were many. “When you grow up here, you use the trails and mess around the river valley as a kid, but you don’t know too much about it. A lot of the interviews were very enlightening, and they all provided a different perspective.”
Northcott remembers the interview with Dr. Duane Froese along the NSR’s riverbanks. “Duane talked about the geological history and showed us the layers of the different floods and the ash layer from seven or eight thousand years ago. I've seen it and not really knowing what it was, I didn't really think much of it.” Now that he knows what he’s looking at, it’s changed how he views the river and its surrounding landscape.
As a new Dad, Northcott said that this tied some threads together for him. Realizing “that the river has been here for 16 or 17 thousand years and it's going to be here for another however many thousands of years long past when I'm gone and my grandchildren are gone,” brought home the concept of thinking “seven generations down the line.” He adds, “And that line of thinking has to influence the way that you act. So those were probably the biggest takeaways for me.”
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE CIRCLE & ROOTED CONNECTIONS
Northcott was also moved by the several hours he spent listening to the Indigenous Knowledge Circle. He said unfortunately they weren’t able to include a lot of that content [Belovich says in part due to audio problems caused by a passing train]. Hearing the Elders’ perspectives gave Northcott a glimpse of the challenges of being the original stewards of the land in a contemporary context.
Belovich says that working on the film deepened her connection to the river. Both the physical reality of seeing it from different perspectives – as well as hearing others’ stories. “I'm very grateful to have gotten the opportunity to be there for the Indigenous Knowledge Circle. Listening to the stories they shared and their knowledge of the river was incredible.” Other moments that stood out were when she visited Miles Wowk and Genny Mehlhaff’s ranches (Wowk Ranch and Crazy Creek Ranch respectively) in the eastern and western parts of the watershed. Seeing the work they do to protect the water on their land and the surrounding areas was inspiring for Belovich and gave her a respect for how landowners can truly steward their land.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR THE AUDIENCE
As for key takeaways, Northcott hopes the audience make opportunities to enjoy the river and will see themselves as stewards - a role well within reach. He says that for some that will mean joining a volunteer group to do cleanups. But he quotes Neufeld’s take on stewardship which is about “the choices made in a person’s own backyard that influence the larger watershed and in turn, impact the species and biodiversity that thrive here.”
MILLAR & THE NSWA TEAM
Belovich was grateful for Millar’s input throughout the project. She says he helped smooth the road at times and she was “grateful to have a mentor to help guide her through specific situations and to go to for advice”. She also said that the NSWA staff were very supportive whenever she needed anything and was grateful for production assistance from Caitlin Hilsen-Ashford and Emily Specht.
Northcott also says he’d like to give a shout out to NSWA for all their support. “Obviously Scott, from the high-level heading the project. I know he was well looped in and he was pulling some of those strings from up top. It was a great experience and I was very happy to do it.”
NORTHCOTT’S EXPERTISE AND TEAM MEMBERS
Belovich says that Northcott was always available when needed, and if a challenge arose, he was quickly able to pivot. Although easygoing, Northcott had enough expertise to make a suggestion if he thought something could be done differently or in a better way. Belovich says, “He went above and beyond all my expectations for this whole project. If it weren’t for him and his team, the film would not have turned out as well as it did.” The film’s editor Weyme Teeter also spent “countless hours” piecing together the film almost exactly how they envisioned it, according to Belovich. Co-Director of Photography Chase Gardiner was also an integral part of capturing the story, composing beautiful landscape shots and contributing valuable expertise and equipment to the project.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Millar gives some thoughts about the over-arching purpose of the documentary. “This film is about creating a connection, a connection between people and the river. The more that people see and understand the river and its story, the more willing they will be to act to keep the river and its watershed healthy.” Ending on a personal note, Millar adds, “For me, it’s been inspiring to see how the process of making this documentary has deepened our own connection to the watershed and reminds us why we do what we do.”
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To learn more:
For the film's homepage, go to: https://www.nswa.ab.ca/initiatives/documentary-film
If your organization is interested in hosting a screening of the documentary, please reach out to us at water@nswa.ab.ca