Underwater camerawoman Tiare Boyes returns to Morrison Creek, the backyard stream that shaped her childhood on Vancouver Island. Once seeking far-off expeditions and adventures, she now finds herself navigating the rhythms and challenges of new motherhood while searching for inspiration closer to home.

Boyes is looking for the Morrison Creek lamprey, an endangered fish that exists nowhere else. Lampreys are often misunderstood and dismissed as ugly or frightening, but they’re remarkable fish: they evolved more than 300 million years ago, well before dinosaurs. Morrison Creek lampreys are the only lamprey in the world that have both parasitic and non-parasitic types in one population, and can be an evolutionary link between these two types of lampreys.

In A Special Little Fish, Boyes sets out to contribute to the conservation work of the local community Streamkeepers group by filming the lampreys’ urban stream habitat and their nesting and mating behavior. Her striking underwater cinematography reveals the intricate lives of the Morrison Creek lampreys.

The film weaves together themes of family, community, resilience and rediscovery. Between caring for her daughter, grappling with career uncertainty, and pushing through the physical challenges of postpartum life, Boyes finds new meaning in the familiar waters of her childhood.

A story of balance and adaptation, A Special Little Fish challenges us to look again at what we overlook — whether a small fish in a backyard creek or the unexpected ways life transforms us.