Documentary Feature The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ is currently streaming

(featuring Regina-born soprano Heather Pawsey)

“We are pleased to share that the television premiere of the TELUS original documentary feature The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ is now available to audiences across Canada free on demand and online at https://watch.telusoriginals.com/ worldwide. This unique film is a musical work of cross-cultural collaboration and discovery centering on a journey to decolonize a 1950s Canadian opera about the syilx people and first settlers in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. The film features Regina-born renowned soprano Heather Pawsey.

It is the first Canadian opera shot specifically as a film and features Westbank First Nation elder and artist Delphine Derickson, and award-winning Canadian soprano Heather Pawsey. The inspiring music documentary—with Vancouver director John Bolton (Aim For The Roses) at the helm—follows the extraordinary friendship between these two singers and teachers. The film captures the ground-breaking two-year cross-cultural collaboration that took place as they transformed The Lake, a historic opera written in 1952 by Canadian composer Barbara Pentland. They incorporate syilx / Okanagan perspectives, bringing to life the Indigenous and non-Indigenous music, stories and dance from the original live-staged production, alongside a bracingly honest oral history of the successes and failures of the project.

Filled with laughter and tears, and alive to the rhythms of water and wind, The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ celebrates the magic that’s possible when people start to really listen to one another.”