Film details

Synopsis

As we stand at the brink of a sixth extinction caused by human activity, countless species are adapting swiftly, thriving in our shadow and foretelling the ecologies of the future. The Inheritors is guided by one such species, the ring-billed gull, in an exploration of our shared world.

Each spring, tens of thousands of these gulls migrate to a small island in the Saint Lawrence River near Montreal to nest alongside Canada’s largest landfill, an essential source of food for their young. Tracing a full reproductive season, the film offers an arrestingly intimate observation of the colony’s social organization, emotional life and daily rituals in an increasingly inhospitable ecosystem. Alternating between the perspectives of prey and predator, we follow the gulls as they become the targets of invasive data collection, then of harsh deterrence measures using the age-old art of falconry. For these unwanted creatures, threats arrive from both land and air in the form of flesh, feather and metal.

With a soundtrack that lets the voices of the birds speak for themselves and cinematography that prioritizes their gaze, The Inheritors is a sensory experience which invites us to contemplate new ways of living and dying on a planet haunted by mass consumption and pollution.

Crew

Writing: Serge-Olivier Rondeau

Cinematography: Serge-Olivier Rondeau

Sound Recording: Serge-Olivier Rondeau et Félix Lamarche

Editing: Anouk Deschênes

Color grading: Sylvain Cossette

Sound Design: Samuel Gagnon-Thibodeau

Sound Mix: Jean Paul Vialard

Protagonists: The Ring-Billed Gull Colony of Deslauriers Island, Stéphanie Mercure, Zara, Coralie Turquois, Sarah Vigeant

Direction

Serge-Olivier Rondeau

Serge-Olivier Rondeau is a filmmaker whose work intersects media arts and experimental ethnography. His films and installations explore the relationships between humans and non-humans—particularly animals, plants and technology. His work has appeared in numerous exhibits and festivals across Canada and internationally, including as a member of the group Épopée and co-founder of the After Faceb00k collective. Fractures, an installation featuring the films Ruptures and Insurgence and focusing on the Quebec student strikes of 2012, was featured at Manif d’Art 7. As part of the Mois de la Photo à Montréal, the McCord Museum exhibited In Loving Memory <3 an immersive nine-screen video dedicated to Facebook users who live on after death on the site’s servers. In 2021, he co-directed his first feature-length documentary Ressources with Hubert Caron-Guay, which made its premiere at IDFA. The film examines the modes of existence of animals, humans and landscapes caught up in the industrial meat production chain. The inheritors is his second documentary feature.

 

Filmography 

THE INHERITORS, 2025, 79 min, Documentary

RESOURCES, 2021, 99 min, Documentary
GRAND NATIONAL, 2021, 21 min, Documentary

IN LOVING MEMORE <3, 2016, 45 min, Installation
FRACTURES, 2014, 287 min, Installation