Sisters and Rivers is story about three sisters and fisherwomen, born and raised in Alaska’s salmon fishing industry, who lose their father and go on a journey inland and across the border to witness a modern day gold rush taking place at the headwaters of salmon rivers that are the backbone of the livelihood their father taught them. 

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  -Known as Tahltan Territory, Nisga’a Territory, Taku River Tlingkit Territory by the area’s first people and longest inhabitants.

 

  -Known as the Golden Triangle by a mining industry that has been working to extract the region’s hard to reach gold and copper deposits for decades. 

 

  -It holds the headwaters of critical salmon rivers that flow over the border and are the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska.

 

Northern British Columbia is a remote region caught in the crosshairs of international mining interest and perched at the brink of irreversible change. 

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Sisters and Rivers is an intimate and surprising exploration of the nature of power, inheritance, continuity and sacrifice. Current and archival verite footage of the sister’s journey and their upbringing on a fishing boat is woven together with interlocking, close-up character portraits and historical and political exposé. The sisters pull the story through landscape and chronology, peeling back complex layers; bringing viewers face to face with the people in the transboundary region of BC and Alaska who are living through a transition of unimaginable scale.

 

A startling question is drawn into sharp focus: As the world cries for a the way out of the climate crisis, and the biggest players in gold and copper mining position themselves to meet a boom in mineral demands, who will be sacrificed and what will be lost?