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Film Descriptions
Lords of the Arctic, 52 minutes
Caroline Underwood, Director
Lords of the Arctic focuses on Northern wildlife and its close and tragic relation to climate change, which affects all of the Arctic's fragile ecosystems. The example of the polar bear, studied by biologists for the past 20 years, is revealing. Scientists are also concerned about the precarious situation of bowhead whales and belugas, not to mention seals, walruses and many species of birds. Are the lords of the Arctic in danger of ending their reign over their kingdom of ice and snow?
Islet, 7 minutes
Nicolas Brault, Director
In Islet, inspired by his voyage in the Far North, Nicolas Brault combines stark images reminiscent of Inuit art with his own special whimsy to depict a world in which whales fall out of the sky and fish turn into balloons. This film is an ode to the Arctic, which each year is disappearing a little farther into the ocean.
The Great Dance - A Hunter's Story, 75 minutes
Craig Foster and Damon Foster, Directors/Writers
The San, often referred to as "The First People", are widely acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, with an unbroken link to their ancestors who have lived in the same region for the over 30,000 years. The Great Dance - A Hunter's Story follows a group of !Xo San in the central Kalahari, focusing on the unique relationship between their lifestyle, the land and the animals they hunt. Hunting is fundamental to their culture, and the film develops this issue, culminating in "the chasing hunt" where they have to "take over" the animal's mind in this ancient battle of human-animal endurance.
How to Make a Bird, - 32 seconds
Juan Carlos Zaldivar, Director
What happens when a woman tries to turn herself into a bird? Not much, as the public service announcement How to Make a Bird shows. All the feathers in the world can't rebuild an extinct species.
Crown of the Continent, 28 minutes
John Grabowska, Producer
Explore the soul of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve by air, skis, raft and on foot in Crown of the Continent. Stunning footage is accompanied by spare poetic narration and an original orchestral score. The lyrical film moves from the ocean into the St. Elias Range, with the world's highest coastal peaks, and across to the Wrangells, skeletons of formerly massive volcanoes.
Tree Rings: Counting the Years of Global Warming, 8 minutes
Liz Smith, Producer
Tree Rings: Counting the Years of Global Warming takes us to the scientific front lines as researchers attempt to track global climate change, and find patterns that help us understand how humans are affecting the future of the planet. Join researchers on a sample-gathering expedition into the serene highlands surrounding Yellowstone National Park, where the rings of ancient trees provide a sterling historical record of climate change. Then follow these scientists into scientific laboratories, where they are able to show graphic evidence of human activity's effect on our climate.
Wrappings, 7 minutes
Katrina Hart Drabkin, Director/Writer
Guerilla art stalks the streets of San Francisco, as a young woman wearing recycled food packaging engages and is engaged by curious bystanders. In Wrappings, the audience is not-so-subtly encouraged to contemplate innovative ways to proliferate ecological sanity.
French Fries to Go, 15 minutes
Dr. Howard Donner, Director
French Fries to Go centers on Colorado resident Charris Ford, who advocates the environmentally friendly use of biodiesel fuel by driving a modified pickup fueled by refined, used French fry oil. Cruising the countryside in his earflap hat and sunglasses, Charris spreads his message by providing hard facts about his fuel system through intelligent conversation and rap.
Alaska Hunting Adventure: 700 Miles Alone in the Brooks Range, 75 minutes
Bruce "Buck" Nelson, Producer
This is the story of a six week, solo hunt into the heart of the Alaskan Wilderness. Follow a hunter as he walks 200 miles during three weeks of mountain hunting without seeing another human being. Then spend three more weeks with him as he rafts 500 miles down a string of three wilderness rivers in the Brooks Range and float-hunts for moose and caribou, and fishes for arctic grayling, pike, and salmon. Alaska Hunting Adventure: 700 Miles Alone by Backpack and Raft chronicles an epic arctic hunt!
Land of the Great Spirit, 5 minutes
Ben Boyd, Producer
The Gwich'in Indians of Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada have received physical and spiritual nourishment from the Porcupine Caribou Herd for thousands of years. Land of the Great Spirit documents the spiritual relationship that exists between the Gwich'in, the Creator, the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and their calving grounds in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Varmints, 57 minutes
Doug Hawes-Davis, Producer/Director
Prairie dogs are blamed for taking valuable grazing land away from American livestock, and are therefore labeled varmints which can be hunted by anyone in any season. But as their natural habitat dwindles to 2% of what it once was, questions begin to arise about the prairie dog's true place in the American West. Detailing the conflicting perspectives of farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, hunters and ecologists, Varmints asks the most important question of all: is the prairie dog just an agricultural pest or an essential part of the ecosystem?
Tickle the Sky, 37 minutes
David Stark, Producer
Treeclimbing…it's not just for kids anymore! With the development of ingenious new climbing gear, anyone can experience once again the thrill we all felt in childhood of being up in a tree. Young and old, able-bodied and infirm, almost everyone can now climb trees safely without undue effort, and with no harm to the tree. People who go up in trees seem to come down taller. For child and adult, Tickle the Sky, like treeclimbing, is about the joy of living.
World Population, 7 minutes
Pam Wasserman, Producer
The world's population has increased fourfold since 1900. If current growth rates continue, it will double again before the year 2030. Yet the earth's resources are finite and we are already testing its limits. World Population is a striking depiction of actual population growth from 1 A.D. to the present and of projected future growth to the year 2020. As the years roll by on a digital clock, dots appear on a world map representing millions of people added to the population. References to historic events help place population changes in context.
Empty Oceans, Empty Nets, 15 minutes
Steve Cowan, Director/Producer; Barry Schienberg, Producer
Despite an ever-intensifying fishing effort, the global catch appears to have reached its limit, while the demand for seafood continues to grow. Empty Oceans, Empty Nets examines the full extent of the global fisheries crisis and the forces that continue to push many marine fish stocks toward commercial extinction. The film also documents some of the most promising and innovative work being done to restore fisheries and protect essential fish habitat. New market initiatives are examined that give consumers a powerful vote in deciding how the oceans are fished. Commentary is provided by fishermen and by many of the world's most respected marine and fisheries scientists.
Journey of the Tiglax, 32 minutes
Steve Heiser, Director
Mountains of icy green sea, cacophonous bird cliffs and vicious weather are just part of a day's work for the men and women of the M/V Tiglax, research vessel of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. In Journey of the Tiglax, visit isolated refuge field camps where scientists work to unlock the secrets of island wildlife.
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 56 minutes
Neil Goodwin, Producer/Director
Rachel Carson had been a consulting biologist for the federal government's Fish and Wildlife Department when she first took note of the unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides, especially DDT, in "agricultural control" farming. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring tells the story of Carson's realization of wide spread pollution from pesticides - and of her struggle to write the book that helped to begin the modern environmental movement and which has had a profound effect on the conservation of marine and aquatic life, as well as on the quality of air, water and soil in all environments.
Letter from the Brooks Range, 8 minutes
Robert Krear, Director; Conservation Foundation, Producer
In 1956, conservation leaders Olaus and Mardy Murie led a summer-long scientific expedition to the upper Sheenjek River, deep within the area they were working to establish as a great wilderness preserve. Letter From the Brooks Range is their portrayal of the area, its wildlife, and their experiences. Narrated by the Muries, it concludes with a personal plea for public support to establish what became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Ghosts of Lomako, 65 minutes
Kenton Vaughan, Producer/Director
Follow a Belgian researcher to the war-ravaged Lomako region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has been trying for years to protect a seriously endangered population of Bonobo apes. The Ghosts of Lomako tells the complex story about the underlying causes of environmental degradation, namely the lack of sustainable human development leading to the imminent extinction of wildlife in the rain forest. The film also examines the paradox of a mission to save apes from extinction in a country facing annihilation itself.
Loon Dreaming, 8 minutes
Iriz Paabo, Director; Michael Fukushima and David Verral, Producers
An animated film without words, Loon Dreaming opens with loons gracefully riding the waves. Then suddenly we see the world through the eyes of one of these spectacular birds. We dive down deep into the waters in pursuit of fish, launch skyward from the water and fly high over the busy highways and sprawling subdivisions that scar the natural world-before gently splashing down on a secluded lake.
Pocket Desert: Confessions of a Snake Killer, 25 minutes
Teresa Marshall and Craig Berggold, Directors/Writers; George Johnson, Producer
Every outlaw needs an enemy, and for a young girl growing up on a ranch in the last corner of the Wild West, the rattlesnake takes center stage as the perfect demon for her childhood imagination. As settlers' dreams of creating an agricultural Eden erase fragile desert lands that support a breathtaking array of wild species, the narrator and her snake-hunting neighbors are forced to examine their environmental attitudes in Pocket Desert: Confessions of a Snake Killer.
 Far North Conservation Film Festival
101 12th Ave., Room 262, Box 11
Fairbanks, Alaska 99701
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