Connective tissue

For filmmaker Ryan Noth, everything is connected

Ryan Noth is on a mission. He’s finding places in the County he refers to as “criminally underused,” and bringing music to them.

And that mission seems to be connecting itself to everything else in his life.

It’s how he got started with Sandbanks: New Waves, a sophomore music festival that makes great use of the criminally underused amphitheatre at Sandbanks Provincial Park.

And that is how he met Jonas Bonnetta, a journalist and musician and lead singer/songwriter for Evening Hymns. Jonas played in the first Sandbanks festival, and stayed with Ryan and his partner, Tess Girard, at their home in Cherry Valley. They became fast friends.

Ryan and Tess are both filmmakers. Ryan had told Jonas about his idea for a dramatic feature, and that is how the two ended up collaborating on the project, which is still in the works.

Both Ryan and Jonas have rolled up their sleeves and joined the fight against wind turbines on land worth protecting. Ryan’s fight is here in the County, while Jonas’ is near his workplace in Sharbot Lake, where a 150-unit industrial wind project has been proposed, the largest of its kind in Ontario, possibly in Canada.

And that is how they decided to incorporate the issue of wind turbines into their story of small town Canada. County residents might find Jonas’ sentiments familiar.

“I just think people are getting tricked, in a lot of ways,” says Jonas. “We don’t really know what the repercussions of these things are, and I think it’s really short-sighted to just go ahead and build these massive things when we really don’t know what we’re doing… and to do it in a place that right now, is really beautiful just seems really short-sighted.”

Everything is connected.

The film is a long way from being ready. But in the meantime, Ryan and Jonas are collaborating on music yet again. This time it’s another criminally underused space in the County: the Cherry Valley United Church. On November 28, Evening Hymns and the Weather Station, both Canadian indie bands, will perform at the church.

“A lot of places, like the Hayloft, stop doing music after October 31. And we just wanted to have an evening in the church,” says Ryan. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful building… it’s just a really nice space, intimate.”

Ryan describes their music as rural and folky, with a gospel feeling to their lyrics. The bands will be accompanied by projected footage Ryan and Tess have shot throughout the County. For more information, you can visit fifthtownfilms.ca/events