New Venue, Same Big Night: The Fire in Our Hearts Comes Home to the Park Theatre
Mark your calendars — and update them! The Vancouver finale of Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Josias Tschanz’s award-winning documentary The Fire in Our Hearts has a new home. Originally announced for the Rio Theatre, the screening on Sunday, November 29 will now take place at the Park Theatre on Cambie Street. The date stays the same — and the event just keeps getting bigger.
At a glance
- What: The Fire in Our Hearts — screening plus an expert panel Q&A with the filmmaker
- When: Sunday, November 29, 2026 — doors 11:30 am, film 12:30 pm
- Where: The Park Theatre, 3440 Cambie St., Vancouver (new venue — formerly listed at the Rio Theatre)
- Tickets: Buy at the Park Theatre
- Runtime / rating: 86 minutes, PG
If you already planned to attend at the Rio, please note the new address and get your tickets through the Park Theatre. Park Theatre tickets are final sale, and the theatre recommends buying in advance and arriving 20–30 minutes early.
The grand finale of a remarkable tour
This screening marks the finale of the film’s Canadian theatrical tour. Since launching its theatrical release in Calgary in October, The Fire in Our Hearts has travelled across the country and picked up international recognition along the way — including Best Environmental Film at the Activists Without Borders Film Festival in London, UK.
The film’s reach goes well beyond the cinema. Chief Corrina Leween of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation presented it at the Assembly of First Nations’ 4th National Climate Gathering in Hamilton. And on November 12, just weeks before the Vancouver finale, it screens at a Canadian Embassy event in Bern, Switzerland — a proud moment for a film that has also found recognition in its director’s other homeland.
About the film
On British Columbia’s remote Southside, wildfire is not a distant headline — it is lived reality. When flames close in during the 2018 fire season, the Cheslatta Carrier Nation and their neighbours face an impossible choice: evacuate, or stay and defend the land that defines them.
Cut off and with little outside support, the community pulls together, drawing on Indigenous leadership, cooperation and generations of knowledge. Then the fire reveals something unexpected: the long-erased site of a Cheslatta village, bringing a suppressed chapter of history back to the surface. The result is a moving portrait of resilience, sovereignty and the limits of community-led action.
Watch the official trailer and learn more on the film’s website.
A conversation that matters: the post-screening Q&A
The film is only the beginning. After the screening, a panel brings together voices from science, Indigenous leadership and grassroots emergency response to talk about wildfire management and how communities can prepare for the future:
- Dr. Lori Daniels — Professor of Forest Ecology at UBC and a leading expert on wildfire resilience and how communities can coexist with fire
- Chief Corrina Leween — Chief of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, a central voice in the film and a strong advocate for Indigenous-led wildfire management
- Rise Johansen — Representative of the Chinook Emergency Response Society (CERS), the grassroots wildfire response initiative featured in the film
- Josias Tschanz — Swiss-Canadian director and producer of The Fire in Our Hearts
Invitations have also gone out to Minister Bowinn Ma, Minister Ravi Parmar and Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry, and organizers hope additional guests will join the conversation. A small VIP reception before the screening — bringing together filmmakers, Indigenous leaders, policymakers and supporters — is also in the works.
A call to the Swiss-Canadian community
For Josias Tschanz, this film has been a true passion project, and he would love to see a strong Swiss presence in the audience for its Vancouver finale. This is a chance for our community to come together around a meaningful and timely conversation — and to celebrate one of our own.
So bring your friends, family and colleagues, and share this post widely. We’ll see you at the Park Theatre on November 29!
Get your tickets: theparktheatre.ca