“Ecology of Being” is a short film featuring the music of Canadian composer Melissa Hui and the poems of Shannon Webb-Campbell, an award-winning mixed Indigenous (Mi’kmaq) settler poet and author. Director Nicola Hawkins directs performances by Canada’s JUNO-winning Duo Concertante and Clara Steeves in a film which follows a young woman’s spiritual and political awakening. She comes to realize that she is not a separate entity moving through the world but rather she is part of the world, part of an ecological continuum. In Hawkins’ words, “She arrives at this awareness through direct tactile experiences of the natural world as she hikes through a range of landscapes and seascapes. The film opens at the end of her wilderness journey as she arrives home. She takes off her boots and proclaims her commitment to take action and live her life according to her new understanding of the Ecology of Being. As the film progresses, the young woman recollects her journey.”

Directed by Nicola Hawkins, Duo Concertante and Melissa Hui (USA)