In early May, I led a panel of writers and filmmakers at the Global Earth Repair Convergence in Port Townsend, WA. The panel was entitled Challenging the Prevailing Climate Change Narratives through Words and Film and included Judith Schwartz, Rob Lewis, Didi Pershouse, and Erica Gies. It was well attended and a lot of fun.
I took the opportunity of being in the Pacific Northwest to conduct two important interviews for my current film The Gaia Perspective. At the beach in Port Townsend, I interviewed Unangan elder Illarion Merculieff. I had been wanting to interview him since I read his book Wisdom Keeper.
Our interview touched on several subjects that relate to The Gaia Perspective. In particular, we talked about how the Unangan People, who live in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea shorelines and who were enslaved by both the Russians and the Americans, have managed to maintain a lifestyle based on an understanding of the inherent wisdom of nature, including humans.
From Port Townsend, Sheila and I drove to Penticton, British Columbia, where I interviewed Jeannette Armstrong at the En’owkin Centre. She worked with Fritjof Capra at the Elmwood Institute and the Center for Ecoliteracy to develop ways to incorporate the Okanagan understanding of the relationship between people and the land into the curriculum.
Professor Armstrong is Syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker and teacher of the Nsyilxcn Okanagan language, and a traditional knowledge keeper of the Okanagan Nation. She is a founder of En’owkin, the Okanagan Nsyilxcn language and knowledge institution of higher learning. She is also Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Okanagan Philosophy at UBC Okanagan.
Back in my studio, I am now working with these two amazing interviews, along with a wealth of interviews and archival and nature footage, as I put together the first rough cut of The Gaia Perspective. Every time I listen to the interviews, I learn more and more. Given the breadth and complexity of this film, we are projecting completing the film in early 2028.
John Feldman, Hummingbird Films
July 17, 2026