Documentary filmmaker Twyla Roscovich is looking forward to a controversial home coming.
Her latest project, Salmon Confidential, has just been released and takes a highly critical look the B.C. salmon farming industry.
“I’m looking forward to the Campbell River screening. I’m sure it will be interesting,” she says.
She chuckles at her own understatement because Roscovich knows all too well the hub of the B.C. salmon farming industry is based in Campbell River.
She grew up here too, graduated from Carihi secondary in 1996, and immediately went out and started filming killer whales for the BBC.
Later, she got to know Alexandra Morton, a biologist and activist who supports wild salmon and condemns salmon farming in coastal waters.
“She has a huge knowledge of fish and she’s dialed in to what’s going on,” says Roscovich, during a phone interview Monday.
The new 70-minute documentary follows Morton’s 2012 investigation of wild salmon deaths which she attributes to European viruses associated with salmon farming.
Roscovich is the one-woman film crew who follows Morton’s trips to court, remote rivers, government offices, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants.
“The film documents Morton’s journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon,” reads a news release from the website salmonaresacred.org.
The timing of the documentary’s release also coincides with the upcoming provincial election on May 13.
“We’re hoping this does become an election issue,” says Roscovich.
You can watch the film online at salmonconfidential.ca and it’s due to be screened in Campbell River sometime in mid-April at the Timberline Secondary theatre. The date still needs to be confirmed.