A film of current urgency, now that the Canadian government has approved the controversial, and misguided, plan to dramatically expand the shipping terminal on Roberts Bank, an estuarine area near Delta, in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Roberts Bank is year round home to tens of thousands of birds, and transient home to millions of migratory birds, for whom the Fraser River delta is a crucial resting and fueling point on their way north and south during their annual migrations that stretch from as far as northern Alaska and eastern Russia to Chile.

While "As Grey Falls" is not explicitly about this expansion, it is a call to know and love this area of which too few people are aware. The film was shot in the Fraser River delta in the winter. From the fog and the clarity of the light, the film draws lessons about the human relationship to the animals of the delta--above all birds--and our capacity to know about their existences. It patiently observes these animals and the landscapes where they live as they change before our very eyes and ears in the wake of historical and ongoing human encroachment into this ecologically important, biologically magnificent, and grievously unprotected area.