Instructor
velcrowripper@capilanou.ca
Education
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Bio
Velcrow Ripper is an award-winning filmmaker who creates powerful, cinematic feature documentaries that address the central issues of our time. He often produces, directs, shoots, edits and sound designs his work.
His first feature-length documentary, Bones of the Forest (16mm, co-directed with Heather Frise), is about Elders and the struggle to save the ancient temperate rainforests of British Columbia. The film won nine awards, including Best of the Festival and Best Overall Sound at Hot Docs and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary.
His CBC documentary Open Season, about the trophy hunting of bears and the activists who “hunt the hunters,” won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFilm).
Ripper's climate emergency trilogy of feature documentaries was co-directed with Nova Ami: Metamorphosis (NFB/Knowledge), Emergence (Knowledge) and Incandescence (NFB), which is being released on CRAVE.
His epic Scared Sacred Trilogy began with Scared Sacred (NFB, Vision TV, Arte France), a journey to the Ground Zeroes of the world in search of stories of hope. The film won the 2005 Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary and the Special Jury Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. The trilogy continued with 2008’s Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action (NFB, The Movie Channel, E1 Entertainment), winner of the Audience Award and Best Canadian Feature at VIFF and concluded with the award-winning Occupy Love (SuperChannel), which had a theatrical launch that began in New York City and spread to over 350 screenings around the world.
He is well known for his award-winning sound design on such films as The Corporation (Best Sound, Leo Awards) and A Place Called Chiapas (Best Sound, Hot Docs, Leo Awards). He is the co-founder of the Gulf Islands Film and Television School.
His films are released theatrically, broadcast and streamed, and are widely shown in global grassroots releases.