The Story
In the world’s last great Northern temperate rainforests, communities rise to protect what remains—and to restore what was lost.
Amid remnants of ancient temperate rainforests, modern-day champions fight to protect and restore some of the rarest ecosystems on Earth. Though they cover less than one percent of the planet’s surface, these forests store more carbon per acre than the Amazon, making them crucial in the fight against climate change.
This film weaves communities linked by northern lights, latitude, and the legacy of immense forests. The Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska, together with Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, forms the largest intact temperate rainforest on Earth—and one of the most threatened, as shifting U.S. policies endanger the Tongass.
Half a world away, the Northern British Isles offer a glimpse of what once was: a landscape where ancient Caledonian woodlands are beginning to return, nurtured by a growing rewilding movement, after centuries of human impact.
Together, these stories form a tapestry of resilience, loss, and renewal—inviting audiences to reimagine our relationship with the living world and to take action for forests that sustain us all.
Roots of Resilience is an urgent feature-length documentary film in production, led by award-winning Director Jessica Plumb, with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship from Women Make Movies in New York City.
“Stories are amoung our most potent tools for restoring the land”
A tale of two temperate rainforests
Roots of Resilience is a feature film in pre-production, profiling two communities devoted to temperate rainforests, which are among the rarest ecosystems on earth.
Set amid dramatic northern landscapes and lush beauty, the film weaves a circle of people linked by latitude and ecology. An urgent race to protect the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest, on a remote Pacific coastline shared by the US and Canada, is shown in contrast with rewilders working to transform long lost woodlands of the North Atlantic in Scotland and Ireland. Together these stories reveal an intimate portrait of Northern temperate rainforests and their protectors, with stakes for the whole planet.
Vulnerable and vital, temperate rainforests offer a warning and a ray of hope. Ultimately the fate of these forests affects us all, due to the critical role rainforest ecosystems play in sequestering carbon and fostering biodiversity.
Will a cycle of extreme deforestation be repeated from one side of the globe to the other, or can we learn from examples of the past? At the heart of this film is an invitation, to restore our human relationship with forest landscapes.
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This project is currently in production since June 2025.
Production will unfold during seasonal opportunities in 2025 and 2026.
The film will be in post-production in 2027.
Release and an impact campaign anticipated by 2028.
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There are multiple ways to support the completion of this feature film and a future impact campaign. We welcome your support!
As of April 2025, the project has secured approximately 40% of an anticipated 500K budget for completion of the film.
Tax deductible donations can be made directly through Women Make Movies, the project’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor.
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Please contact: Ann Ellis, Producer
(206) 697-2722
annproducer@gmail.com
“It is an intertwining of science, spirit, and story—old stories and new ones that can be medicine for our broken relationship with earth.”
Places
The North Atlantic
Amid rolling moors and open vistas, the Northern British Isles offer a foretaste of former temperate rainforest, in a landscape transformed by millennia of human impact. Long ago these isles were blanketed by the great Caledonian woods to the North, an ecosystem that teamed with salmon, wolves and bear. The people of these forests, fierce protectors in their time, inspired Roman invaders to construct Hadrian’s Wall near the present-day boundary between England and Scotland – almost two millennia ago.
Today, Scotland and Ireland are among the most deforested countries on earth. Less than 2% of ancient forest remains, amid beautiful but barren landscapes. Ambitious rewilding efforts offer a glimmer of hope for forests felled by early colonization, industry and conflict, a story of renewal.
The North Pacific
In the North Pacific, a landscape shrouded by mist stretches from Oregon to Southeast Alaska, a world known for salmon rivers and conifer cathedrals of cedar, Sitka spruce and Douglas fir. From a bird’s eye view, the landscape is a tapestry of green, interwoven with rivers and ocean inlets. Yet the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest, shared by the United States and Canada, is under constant threat, with stakes made even higher by the recent American election.
While much of the region is densely forested, just 3% of old growth remains in most areas, as ancient forests continue to be logged on both sides of the border. America’s largest national forest, the Tongass of Southeast Alaska, is now in peril. This region is culturally unique, with many remote indigenous communities, connected only by water and air. This story opens as political winds are shifting. While over 90% of Southeast residents are in favor of the current roadless rule in the Tongass National Forest, a new administration threatens to overturn it next week.
Roots of Resilience is a feature-length documentary film supported by donations, reviewed and accepted by the Women Make Movies production assistance program.