Documentary on disappearance of, search for Ryan Shtuka to premiere in Kamloops next week

Jared Featherstone, Russ Walton and Allan McVicar received a grant through Telus Storyhive to produce the project.

Featherstone says it’s a story that hits close to home for all three of the filmmakers.

“What happened to Ryan could have happened to anybody,” he says. “That’s the whole reason why Russ, myself and Allan got involved with the project in the first place because we saw a little bit of ourselves in a young Ryan.”

Shtuka, originally from Alberta, was working at Sun Peaks in February 2018. He was last seen in the early morning hours of Feb. 17 while leaving a house party.

He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Featherstone says because of the limited facts known about the case, the documentary will focus on the search for Ryan.

“There aren’t a whole lot of facts that are associated with this so what we had to do was we had to end up focusing on the emotional aspect and the actual search for Ryan,” Featherstone says. “So speaking with the family and spending a lot of time with them over the last year has really kind of opened us up to what their world is like and that’s the story that we tried to tell.”

Peaks and Valleys will premiere at the Paramount Theatre on Monday (July 15) at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free but there will be an opportunity to give donations toward Kamloops Search and Rescue at the venue.

The film will also be available on the Telus Storyhive Youtube channel and on Telus Optik TV.

by Ashley Legassic

Documentary on disappearance of, search for Ryan Shtuka to premiere in Kamloops next week

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