A documentary that was four years in the making will première one year into the renewed political tensions at the Canada-U.S. border.
Award-winning filmmaker Ying Wang is showcasing her documentary The Border on Jan. 24 in Vancouver as part of the interplay 2026 festival.
Wang says the documentary is fitting as political tensions continue to increase the strain on the border.
The film offers “a timely reflection on the fragility of freedom and the enduring friction between the human desire to draw close and the impulse to divide,” a release notes.
Wang explains in this release that when the pandemic forced the closure of the Canada-U.S. border – a 30-day measure that stretched into a two-year shutdown – it was the longest in the history of the world’s “longest undefended border.”
She says that amid this historic shutdown, Peace Arch State Park became the only place where families, lovers, and displaced individuals could meet across the continent.
Wang had a personal connection to this ordeal as she lives in British Columbia and her sister resides in Seattle. The park became a deeply personal site for reunion between the two.
Filmed from 2020 to 2024, Wang said that “The Border captures the emotional choreography of life along this boundary. The park serves as both sanctuary and stage, revealing the absurdities, contradictions, and fragile freedoms that emerge when political forces collide with the human desire to connect.”
In May 2024, Peace Arch State Park was closed to visitors from the Canadian side, which Wang says “erased the last semblance of shared space” – which became the film’s pivotal point. Wang says that this was a sad reminder that symbolic spaces can also be subjected to the politics of division.
The release says the film doesn’t take a political stance; instead, it offers the audience the power of listening.
“The film is not just a time capsule of an extraordinary moment—it is a meditation on the borders we live with, the ones we inherit, and the ones that are only becoming more entrenched,” says Wang.
“The film’s exploration of borders and liminal spaces mirrors the spirit that drives Interplay: a commitment to questioning boundaries, reimagining what exists between them and reflecting on the divisions that shape, separate, and connect us,” says Caroline Chien-MacCaull, artistic director of interplay.
The Border will be featured as a part of interplay 2026, which is the 13th edition of the festival and will be an in-person event.
The world première will take place at The Cinematheque in Vancouver on Saturday, Jan. 24th from 12pm – 4pm.
For general information about the festivals program go to https://interplay-arts.com/
Follow these links for screening information, tickets and a film synopsis.