Ritual Performance Film Co-Created by Tannis Hugill & Barbara Bickel with Gregory Wendt, Director of Photography & Editor

Premier Screenings and Talk Back will take place in 2026
April 10, Gabriola Island, BC 
April 12, Vancouver, BC
May 3, International Virtual Screening

Tickets on sale soon

In this mystical, spirit-led indy film, two women, descendants of colonial settlers, enter ritual, storytelling, song and embodied trance with giant ancestral puppets to face the destructive legacy of their ancestors. Enveloped by the brilliance of earth, sky, sea and forest, they journey together toward healing and reconciliation. 

Ritual Performance Description

Pulsating
opaque blood carries
memory and spirit of
ancestors deep within
The project incorporates ritual, embodied trance, storytelling, and ancestral puppets to connect and reconcile with the creators’ colonial ancestors. It serves as an initiatory creative model for difficult personal and collective acts of reconciliation between settler descendants and their ancestors. Thus, it seeks to humbly take responsibility for the traumatic impact of settler colonialism on Indigenous peoples and their lands.
This ritual performance video is intended as a teaching, in particular for descendants of settlers disconnected from their own ancestors, and original lands. In our experience we learned that our traumas could be healed and supported by loving ancestors, when witnessed by ancestral guides, each other, and the audience. This can lead to a vibrant source of creation and peace-building uniting humans across time and space.
Held within the container of sacred space, we honour the presence of two larger- than-life handmade puppets, each representing an ancient ancestral guide. These inspirited guides witness their descendants. Aided by familial hand-crafted relics, such as shawls and doilies, Tannis and Barbara enter the realms of their ancestors through embodied trance. Their stories unfold.
Ancestresses on the film shoot at Drumbeg Bay, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada. 2025. Photo credit carol weaver.
Barbara & Tannis on film shoot with Gregory Wendt at Drumbeg Bay, Gabriola Island, BC Canada. 2025. Photo credit carol weaver
Barbara & Tannis and ancient ancestresses on film shoot on the Gabriola Museum forested lands on Gabriola Island, BC, Canada.

To support the completion of this film please go to our Fundrazr.

With gratitude to our screening sponsors – Gabriola Arts Council, Gabriola Museum and Crimson Coast Dance & Studio M* along with all our individual funders.