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Forest for the Trees is a stunning documentary project that looks at the lives of the tree planters of British Columbia and the stunning landscape in which they work.
About the author
Rita Leistner uses her camera to create portraits of communities, exploring themes of purpose, struggle, and belonging. Each unique world shapes her conceptual approaches and aesthetic styles, resulting in distinctive, large bodies of work that merge art, documentary, and theory, and may consist of books or films in addition to photographs for installation. Confined to Toronto during the pandemic, she has turned her attention to the city and her community there, completing two new projects, including the performative "Infinite Distance," a photographic collaboration with Don McKellar. Leistner has lectured worldwide and has written extensively on documentary photography and photojournalism, including authoring the chapter "Photography Goes to War" in The Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture. She has a Master's degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto, has planted over 750,000 trees in Canada, and is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery. Don McKellar is one of Canada's most acclaimed and prolific creative forces. He was a key member of the Toronto film scene's "New Wave" and co-founder of the avant-garde theatre collective The Augusta Company. He directed and co-starred in the TV series Sensitive Skin with Kim Cattrall and won a Tony as co-writer of a Broadway musical. He has directed four award-winning feature films and acted in many more.
