The Last of the Lookouts

Documentary Short, 20’ (2026)

Director, DoP, Editor | Ryan Wilkes

Featuring | Bart Vanderlinde

Story Editor | Geordie Trifa

Cinematographer | Paige Taylor White

Sound Mix & Sound Effects Editing by David Parfit

Colourist | Dunna

Produced in Association with CBC

Executive Producer for CBC | Lucius Dechausay

Production Company | Trochilus Films

High atop Sinkut Mountain in northern British Columbia, Bart Vanderlinde begins each summer's day the way he has for the past nine years: scanning the forest for smoke. He's among the last lookout people in the province. Where three hundred lookouts once formed an interconnected network across the region, Bart now often keeps watch alone.

The Last of the Lookouts is an intimate portrait of a man and a profession facing obsolescence. Through the rhythms of Bart's daily routine: morning weather readings, daily check-ins, solitary meals, household chores, and countless scans of the horizon, the film gives insight into the craft of fire detection while capturing the quiet solitude of a life lived in observation.

Man in a brown shirt looking through a telescope or binoculars inside a room with large windows, as seen through an open window or door.
A man standing outdoors during sunset, facing away from the camera, overlooking a landscape of trees and mountains.
Close-up of an elderly man with glasses looking through a rifle scope, with a forest and power line in the background.
Older man with gray hair and glasses on his head, looking through binoculars outdoors during sunset.
A mountain ridge with a small building and several communication antennas on top, surrounded by tall evergreen trees and a clear sky.
A landscape of lakes and rolling hills under a hazy, golden sky.
Telecommunication towers and a small building on a hilltop surrounded by evergreen trees, with a vast landscape and blue sky in the background.
Close-up of a person's face, wearing glasses with black frames, and looking to the side.
A man standing on a rocky hilltop looking through binoculars at a vast landscape with forests and water bodies in the distance under a clear sky.
A close-up profile of an elderly man with gray hair, a beard, wearing glasses, looking thoughtfully into the distance during sunset with a background of trees.
Layers of blue mountain ranges with a hazy sky above.
Older man with glasses and gray hair reading a book at a cluttered desk inside a room with large windows and a partly cloudy sky outside.