A short film written and directed by Liesl Lafferty
An uninspired logger aims to cut down a healthy Western Red Cedar, but peculiar tricks start to happen in this enchanted forest which may prevent her from making her quota for the day.
Cast
The Logger – Olesia Shewchuk
The Boss – Bill Courage
The Tree – Liesl Lafferty
Credits
Produced by Liesl Lafferty & Olesia Shewchuk
Director of Photography – Jason Benson
Production Designer – Carlos Vela-Martinez
Editor – Darian Lung
Post Sound Editor – Girasol Post Production
Crew
Story Editor — Olesia Shewchuk
Assistant Director – Stacee Copeland Kerr
Assistant Camera – Darcy Millar
Production Sound – Taoufik Mekraz
Boom Operator – Lauren Roerick
Drone Operator – Rob Zawistowski
Thank you to
Bill Courage, Sophia Courage, Holden Courage, Dawn Milman, Laura Werbitsky, Patrick Bourne, Short Film Lab with Olesia Shewchuk, Stacee Copeland Kerr, Rene Rudge, Rhonda Jesckey, Nathania tenWolde, Darcy Millar, Montgomery Burt, Marilyn Norry, Glynis Davies, David Jones, Denise Gilbert, Ita Margalit, Rudy Thauberger, Hal Gray, Jennifer Ryan, Tara Avery, The Artist Brigade of The Only Animal Theatre Company, Chief Calvin Craigan, Bernie Finklestein, Bruce Cockburn, The Arts Club Theatre Props Department and Write on the Clock
Song
If a Tree Falls
Written and Performed by Bruce Cockburn
Courtesy of Red Brick Songs, Roundhill Music, Linus Entertainment, True North Records and Rotten Kiddies Music LLC
This film was made with the mentorship of the Short Film Lab with Olesia Shewchuk. writeontheclock.com
Shot on the shared, unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, in Vancouver, British Columbia
Copyright 2025
Books to read
Finding the Mother Tree; Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard. Penguin Canada, 2021
Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis, by Elin Kelsey. Greystone Books, Vancouver, Berkeley 2020
Director’s Statement
As a Vancouverite, I live amongst the giant trees of the Coastal temporal rainforest, one of the most important sources of oxygen our planet. I walk in the forest a lot. I talk to the trees.
A few years ago, I caught wind of the work of Suzanne Simard, a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Through her scientific research, she discovered “plant communication and intelligence”. Simard found that a Mother Tree can identify her saplings and send them extra water or carbon through her roots to an underground mycorrhizal fungal network. They communicate. Her conclusion is “Trees talk to one another.” Inspired by her findings, I wrote a short film.
In 2020, I was invited by The Only Animal Theatre Company to be a part of the Artist’s Brigade; a group of 100 multi-disciplined folks energized by exposure to information, education and field research, to activate our art forms and further spread the urgent messages of the climate crisis, because knowing the facts is not enough to change human behavior.
I travelled with the Only Animal to the Sunshine Coast to hike in the SongBird Forest. In addition to hearing from our guides, I gravitated to our Indigenous Leader Chief Calvin Craigan. He welcomed us to the land, and told us that our task was to listen to the forest. There were twenty five people on the trail that day, so I mostly heard human voices and foot falls. Afterwards I asked Calvin, “What do you hear when you listen to the forest?” He said, “My own heart beating. I am one with the trees”. “I have that in my short film!” I exclaimed. He smiled and nodded in agreement.
My co-producer and lead actor in this film is Olesia Shewchuk. Olesia has participated as a writer in my Scriptwriting Workshops over the years. When the pandemic hit, we founded an online writer’s accountability room called Write on the Clock. With her vast education and experience, Olesia also decided to facilitate a Short Film Lab. Eight of us signed up. She provided a clear, passionate and comprehensive course, and the perfect opportunity to direct my first short.
The title “Does Anybody Hear?” comes from a lyric in Canadian music icon Bruce Cockburn’s song “If a Tree Falls”. I wrote to his people to see if I could somehow use his incredible song. We made it work. I was thrilled.
In her book, Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis, by Elin Kelsey, she outlines that without hope we cannot take action, and without action there is no change.
So, I made this short film.
Liesl Lafferty 