‘Why do you think I brought you here?’
In Snow Line, the Vancouver-based filmmaker adam amir embarks on an annual winter pilgrimage with his young son, Rumi Amir. Climbing twin mountains that overlook Vancouver, named Ch’ích’iyúy Elx̱wíḵn (or ‘Twin Sisters’) by the Indigenous Squamish people and today often called the Lions, the two set out to find the place where British Columbia’s lush greenery ends and its white snow begins. The piece weaves footage from past climbs – which feature Rumi laughing, crying, complaining and questioning – with amir’s pensive narration, including how climate change is driving the snow line ever higher. At once intimate and cinematic, the result is a powerful meditation on fatherhood and nature as connected by time.