Join us for a special screening of EMERGENCE: Women in the Storm, the powerful new documentary from award-winning Canadian directors Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, whose acclaimed film Incandescence was a standout at the 2025 Kamloops Film Festival.

Post-film Q&A with film directors and subjects with panel moderated by Dr. Will Garrett-Petts:

• Directors, Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper
• Lana Fine, BSW, MAHRSJ (Master of Arts: Human Rights & Social Justice), Artistic Director of Same Sky Collective Society
• Dr. Cheryl Gladu Assistant Professor of Human Enterprise and Innovation, intersection of design and management scholar
• Dr. Alana Hoare Assistant Teaching Professor of Education, Critical university studies scholar
• Dinyar Minocher, Director of TRU Wildfire
• Film subjects, Sheri Lysons (former fire chief of the Adams Lake Indian Band) and Meghan Fandrich (of Lytton)

The Screening and Post-Film Discussion are supported by a grant from the Wawanesa Insurance Wildfire Community Resilience Fund and Thompson Rivers University’s Community and Cultural Mapping Research Group ⭐️

Biographies – panelists

Nova Ami – Co-Director/Writer/Producer

Nova Ami is a Canadian documentary filmmaker of mixed Filipino heritage. Her current work explores themes of climate emergency and environment, focusing on the perspectives of women and diverse communities. Recent projects include award-winning creative collaborations with filmmaker Velcrow Ripper: Metamorphosis, a theatrical feature documentary which explores the theme of change in this time of climate crisis, described as “breathtaking” by the Toronto Star; Incandescence, an immersive, experiential feature documentary about wildfire (produced by the National Film Board of Canada). Their latest release is EMERGENCE – Women in the Storm (a Knowledge Original), which explores how to survive, thrive, and transform the climate emergency from the perspectives of women at the forefront of the crisis. Previous work includes Say I Do, following the journeys of Filipino women who came to Canada as mail-order brides; and Secrets: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Sexuality which aired on CBC’s The Passionate Eye.

Velcrow Ripper – Co-director/Writer

Velcrow Ripper creates powerful, cinematic feature documentaries that deal with the central issues of our times. His collaborations with Nova Ami include the award winning feature doc Metamorphosis, the web series Living With Dying, and their latest feature docs, Incandescence (NFB) and Emergence: Women in the Storm (a Knowledge Original). His epic Fierce Light Trilogy began with Scared Sacred, a journey to the Ground Zeroes of the world, winner of the 2005 Genie (Canadian Academy) Award for best feature documentary, continued with Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, and concluded with Occupy Love. His film about elders and the struggle to save the ancient forests, Bones of the Forest (co-directed with Heather Frise) won nine awards, including Best of The Festival at Hot Docs and the Genie Award for Best Feature doc. He is well known for his award-winning sound design of such films as The Corporation (Best Sound, Leo Awards) and A Place Called Chiapas (Best Sound, Hot Docs, Leo Awards). www.transparentfilm.media

Sheri Lysons – film subject

Sheri is a former Fire Chief for the Adams Lake Indian band, and a member of “Preparing our Home” a community-based resilience planning program for Indigenous youth. The program enables Indigenous youth to reach their potential in becoming emergency preparedness leaders in their communities.” preparingourhome.ca

Meghan Fandrich – film subject

Meghan Fandrich is a writer, trauma-informed editor, public speaker, and survivor of climate disaster. Her debut book, Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton fire, is available through Caitlin Press. Mehgan’s poetry is woven throughout EMERGENCE. For almost a decade, she poured her heart into Klowa Art Café, a beloved and vibrant little place on Lytton’s Main Street. On June 30, 2021, a wildfire tore through the downtown core of Lytton. Klowa was lost to the flames. The fire left scars on their landscape and on their lives. For Meghan, journeying through grief has taught her the importance of telling her stories, the need for trauma-informed practices, and the beauty of this fragile thing called life. Writing poetry about her experiences became an act of healing, recovery and processing for her. meghanfandrich.com

Lana Fine, BSW, MAHRSJ (Master of Arts: Human Rights & Social Justice) is a drug policy reform advocate, community researcher, and Artistic Director of Same Sky Collective Society in Kamloops, British Columbia. Her work combines arts-based engagement, community-led research, policy development, and advocacy to advance the rights, health, and dignity of people who use drugs and others experiencing vulnerabilities resulting from structural inequities, including the housing crisis and criminalization. Lana works with the TRU Cultural Mapping Research Team as a Research Assistant and Project Manager, contributing to the FireSmart Cultural Mapping Project, other cultural mapping initiatives, research on the toxic drug crisis for the trades, and the DrugAwareBC Substance Use Education for the Trades microcredential.

Dr. Cheryl Gladu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Enterprise and Innovation at Thompson Rivers University and an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of design and management. Her research focuses on how people co-create and manage dynamic and democratic governance systems in pursuit of solving complex problems together. At TRU, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity, and is involved in research initiatives including Innovation for Social Good and the Community & Cultural Mapping Research Group.

Dr. Alana Hoare is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Education and critical university studies scholar at Thompson Rivers University (TRU). Her teaching and scholarship focus on the role of cultures and epistemologies (how we know what we know) and their influence on educational systems. She is increasingly interested in the potential of Wildfire Pedagogies in K-12 science classrooms for strengthening community awareness, resilience, and learning in an era of climate change. Alana holds a Doctor of Education, Educational Leadership, from Western University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in education from TRU.