Today on Good Medicine with film producer Jesse Bochner…
We’re stepping into the wild — into stories carried on wings, hooves, and river currents.
His latest project, Animal Nation, is a seven-part documentary series that reimagines nature storytelling. Instead of simply admiring wildlife from a distance, this series centers the relationship between Indigenous communities and iconic keystone animals — bear, eagle, salmon, wolf, caribou, beaver, and bison — exploring not only what these animals do within an ecosystem, but what they teach us about reciprocity, responsibility, and repair.
The series weaves Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological understanding, and Western science together through a two-eyed seeing approach — not competing truths, but interwoven perspectives. It brings voices long excluded from scientific conversations back into the circle. And while it speaks honestly about environmental realities, it refuses to linger only in doom and gloom. Instead, it highlights people taking meaningful steps forward.
Through filming, Jesse found himself waist-deep in salmon runs, offering tobacco to a caribou, helping relocate a beaver, and witnessing moments so powerful they dissolved the distance between filmmaker and land. He speaks about respectful storytelling — about earning trust, entering homes and sacred spaces with clarity of intention — because real life carries real impacts.
Jesse encourages young storytellers to be brave. To take the leap of faith. Because even a mountain can be crossed one step at a time
You can watch Animal Nation on APTN Thursdays, with versions in French and Mohawk. You can learn more through Two Ducks Media online.
Storytelling, Jesse reminds us, can be good medicine… and sometimes, so can a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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