Resistence, resilience — a visual love letter to the earth

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This article was published 18/10/2025 (360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Katharina Stieffenhofer loves being outside. Whether she’s among the fruit trees, the flowers and the raised garden beds in her yard, or out for a walk in her neighbourhood or in a forest somewhere, she’s in her element.

“I walk the walk,” she says about the lifestyle that inspires her daily to cherish the earth.

“I love to go out there, pick the sun-warm tomatoes, the first lettuce in the spring. I love cooking with ingredients that I have grown myself. There’s nothing I love better than to have my family around, invite friends over, point to everything on the plate — ‘This is from such and such a farm; ‘this is from my garden,’” she says.

Stienffenhofer’s husband makes the world’s best cucumber relish, she says. It’s a two-day event.

“He sets up in front of the TV in the living room and puts on the ball game. He also makes the tomato sauce and the apple sauce. This is the way we live. This is our life. We live it every day,” she says.

Born in Germany in 1955, Stieffenhofer left as a 20-year-old to start a new chapter in Canada. She’s a first-generation immigrant, and although she did not fall in love at first site with the province, her deep appreciation has grown over the years.

“I am now so deeply rooted in the prairies and what we have here. I love solitude. I grew up on an isolated small mixed farm. There was an early connection, living with the soil and the seasons and the harvest and the sowing. My parents instilled in me this love of nature. They modeled for me to be stewards of the land, to take care of animals, to have a deep commitment to social justice and to healthy communities, to care about other people.”

That appreciation of all things nature-related quickly grew to become not only a fascination in her personal life but an exploration in her professional life. As a creative person, Stieffenhofer has committed her time, skills, energy and money into making films that reflect her passions.

She cares immensely about justice — environmental, social and community health, and points out that they’re all connected. The self-taught filmmaker and environmental activist has been busy working on her third film, set to be released later this year.

Everything We Need is Here is a love poem to the earth, an affirmation of resilience and resistance.

“Ancient hunter-gatherer instincts drive my mushroom-foraging passion, which drew me into this project,” Stieffenhofer says. “What started out as a film about foraging soon developed into a deeper consideration of the land, nature and of our interconnectedness with everything,” she says about the documentary that explores ecological justice and community health. Viewers meet Cat, who spearheads efforts to protect the urban Lemay Forest from destruction for development; Terrance, who has been performing traditional healing ceremonies inside the ancient forest for 26 years; and Tiffany, who shares her expansive knowledge of and connection with nature.

Stieffenhofer’s film brings to light what it looks like to live in alignment with powerful and awe-inspiring nature. Manitoba rarely gets celebrated as a place famous for its beauty, but her films are visual feasts bringing viewers into the heart of the province’s enchanting landscapes and stunning natural environments, from vast fields to majestic forests, delicate seedlings to lush grasslands and breath-taking views of clouds and closeups of flowers and insects.

While Stieffenhofer’s films are made in Manitoba, they all deal with universal themes.

“They’re about building healthier communities, connecting to the earth and understanding cycles.”

And This Is My Garden (2010), her first documentary, featured children living in a northern Manitoba community working alongside teachers and adults to plan, grow and harvest their own gardens.

Her award-winning film From Seed to Seed (2017) explores the connection between food, farming and climate resilience, and aims to engage and inform a wide audience.

“I see things that I want to tell people. The documentary film could be the vehicle to communicate these ideas. I never look for a film. The idea has to knock persistently. It’s a huge sacrifice — it’s difficult to get funding. It takes two years to make the film and another two years of promoting. I invested my life savings. It’s a huge responsibility. Not only do I need to make the best film possible, I need to make sure it’s being seen and it’s doing its job,” said the 70-year-old self-proclaimed perfectionist.

Stieffenhofer hopes to make an emotional impact on her audience — to inform, to inspire.

“Persistence and resistance can pay off. That makes me hopeful. When you see something you don’t agree with you have to stand up. People have the power. They need to stand united, stand up against these forces that are destroying the earth.”

And in the thick of all of the political battles and worries about climate change, Stieffenhofer is the first to remind people to get away from the screens and get outside to remember what we’ve been missing.

“When I’m going for walks, I connect with the trees. The trees speak to me, and I am in communion with nature. Right now, I’m seeing the beautiful light on the trees — looking out the window. I have to be in the here and now. I love the here and now. Every day is a gift.”

Stieffenhofer is grateful to Kim Bell, production manager, for supporting her work and the work of many other local filmmakers in Manitoba. Everything We Need Is Here will be available on Bell/MTS Fibe TV1.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca