Testing Ground was filmed on Long Beach, in Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Set against the background of the Pacific Ocean, soldiers move mechanically on the beach, suddenly multiplying like a colony of ants. When they abruptly disappear, they leave behind a few casual strollers along the water’s edge. The film is marked by an incongruity between the soldiers’ determined movements and the banal motions of ordinary passers-by, as if the scene is haunted by a restless memory. And in fact, it is: this same area was once used as a practice target for bombings, and while the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ and t̓ukʷaaʔatḥ knows this land's history well, the touristic tide has washed away its traces.

- Anne-Marie St Jean-Aubere