Canada’s iconic glacier-fed alpine lakes each have a unique blue formed by the mountains and ice that shaped them. Now climate change is rapidly accelerating environmental shifts and causing some of these spectacular blues to vanish. Losing Blue is a powerful documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) that explores this impact of global warming.
Living Lakes Canada, the award-winning water science and stewardship NGO, has partnered with the National Film Board to host an exclusive online screening of Losing Blue on Wednesday, January 31 at 5 p.m. PST / 6 p.m. MST / 8 p.m. EST. With stunning cinematography, this short film (16 minutes; 40 seconds) immerses viewers in a visual journey through ancient mountain lakes and asks what it will mean to lose these ethereal blues. Losing Blue was recently named Best Canadian Short Film at the 2023 Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival in Toronto.
Filmmaker Leanne Allison will introduce the film. Born and raised in Calgary and now based in Canmore, AB, Allison is known for her award-winning feature-length NFB documentaries Being Caribou (2004) and Finding Farley (2009). Both these films are based on long wilderness journeys in remote parts of Canada that continue to shape her work today.
The screening will be followed by a 15-minute talk on the science behind the film, delivered by Losing Blue’s science advisors, limnologists Janet Fischer and Mark Olsen, who are also advisors for Living Lakes Canada’s High Elevation Monitoring Program. The idea for the film came from Fischer and Olson, who have studied lakes in Canada’s Rocky Mountains for nearly two decades.
The event will conclude with a Q&A where audience members can ask questions and better understand the impacts of climate change on mountain lakes and watersheds.
To save your spot, visit https://livinglakescanada.ca/losingblue. While this is a free event, donations to Living Lakes Canada’s High Elevation Monitoring Program are gratefully accepted.
About Living Lakes Canada
Living Lakes Canada is an award-winning water science and stewardship NGO based in the B.C. Columbia Basin that facilitates collaboration in monitoring, restoration, and policy development initiatives for the long-term protection of Canada’s lakes, rivers, wetlands and watersheds.
