A filmmaker from New Hazelton has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award.
Michael Bourquin has been nominated for the Best Photography, Documentary or Factual award for his work on a four part documentary British Columbia: An Untold Story.
He shares the nomination with Alfonso Chin who he worked on the project with.
Additionally, the documentary has been nominated for Best History Documentary Program or Series, Best Direction, Best Visual Research and Best Editorial Research.
Bourquin said he found out he was nominated after waking up to a text from the director of the series Kevin Eastwood.
“It feels pretty good being nominated especially being from a small community like, I grew up in Iskut, BC, lived in Vancouver for a number of years and then back to a small town again and it just shows that it doesn’t matter when you’re from there’s a lot of talent around,” he said.
The series was released in 2021 and retells the history of the province through the perspective of Indigenous, Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi and European stories.
Bourquin said a series like British Columbia: An Untold Story can open up a lot more dialogue because a lot of the things featured in the series are not talked about.
“B.C an Untold History just really opened my eyes for sure and like being an Indigenous person myself a lot of these stories, I had no idea and then hearing it from the various guests on the show is just incredibly eye opening and it’s a series that everybody should be watching,” he said.
According to Bourquin, the series can be found on knowledge.ca and it is free with an email signup to watch.
The Documentary and Factual Award ceremony will be held on April 4.