The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ is an inspiring music documentary about an extraordinary friendship between two singers & teachers - Heather Pawsey of Astrolabe Musik Theatre, and Delphine Derickson of Westbank First Nation - and the groundbreaking cultural collaboration in which they decolonized a historic Canadian opera by incorporating syilx / Okanagan perspectives.

The film brings to life all of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous storytelling, music making and dancing from the original production, alongside a bracingly honest oral history of the successes and failures of the project.

It’s a film about a journey that is, in itself, a continuation of that journey. Filled with laughter and tears, and alive to the rhythms of water and wind, “The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ” celebrates the magic that’s possible when people start to really listen to one another.

A Telus Original, produced with the support of the Vancouver Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, Creative BC / Amplify BC, the Central Okanagan Foundation, the Deux Mille Foundation, the Hamber Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation and the Ambache Charitable Trust, and with the sponsorship of Westbank First Nation, Turning Point Ensemble, Quails’ Gate Estate Winery and the Canadian Music Centre in BC.