Soon in theatres
 

IN THE FOREST

123 min, Documentary, Canada, 2025
Directed byPascale Ferland
Produced byPascale Ferland (Les Films de l'Autre)
LanguagesFrench, Anishinaabemowin, and Innu-aimum
Short descriptionA documentary essay exploring the relationships between humans, animals, and the forest, revealing a complex world where protection and exploitation collide. Blending realism, political engagement, and a dreamlike approach, the film calls for a rethinking of our relationship with the living world.
Film subjects Environment , History & Politics , Rural Life , Society

Film details

Synopsis

In the Forest is a documentary essay that explores the deep connections between humans, animals, and the forest. Through fragments of lives that intersect, echo, or contradict one another, the film gradually weaves the portrait of a rich, complex, and sometimes unsettling world where the desire to protect coexists with the drive to exploit. Moving between realism, political engagement, and dreamlike imagery, it reveals a forest that — in the face of multiplying climate upheavals and an accelerating sixth mass extinction — whispers, to those who know how to listen, the urgent need to safeguard the fragile balance between humanity, fauna, and flora.

 

Crew

Director: Pascale Ferland

Writer: Pascale Ferland

Cinematography: François Jacob, Dominc Leclerc

Animal Cinematography: Luc Farrell

Sound Recording: Marie-Pier Sévigny, Martyne Morin

Editing: René Roberge

Sound Design: Olivier Calvert

Sound Mix: Hans Laitres

Music: Philippe Lauzier

Color Grading: Marc Boucrot

Direction

Pascale Ferland

Pascale Ferland has been a screenwriter, director, and producer for over twenty years. After studying visual arts at UQAM, where her video works received awards, she developed a personal body of documentary films, grounded in fieldwork and driven by a desire to create dialogue between form and ideas. In 2003, she directed her first documentary, Something Like Immortality, followed by Tree With Severed Branches (2005) and Adagio for a Biker (2008), which earned her the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2012, she wrote, directed, and produced her first feature-length fiction film, Riptide. Her 2018 documentary, Pauline Julien, Intimate and Political, achieved wide recognition and won numerous awards. Her most recent film, In the Forest (2025), extends this creative path and resonates at the heart of contemporary debates on our relationship with nature and the land.

 

Filmography

IN THE FOREST, 124 min, Documentary, 2025

PAULINE JULIEN : INTIMATE AND POLITICAL, 77 min, Documentary, 2018

RIPTIDE, 98 min, Fiction, 2013

ADAGIO FOR A BIKER, 90 min, Documentary, 2008

TREE WITH SEVERED BRANCHES, 80 min, Documentary, 2005

SOMETHING LIKE IMMORTALITY, 82 min, Documentary, 2003