The Vancouver Sun
BY Katherine Monk, Postmedia News, JANUARY 23, 2012
PARK CITY, Utah — There are many bizarre sights parading before the viewfinder of a Sundance Film Festival visitor, but the indoor tree imported from Banff and the bear cage outside the library are two of the more cryptic signs of unfettered creativity sprawling around Park City.
Part of a National Film Board interactive film project called Bear 71, the cage and the tree are more than publicity props; they’re symbols of a larger work that aims to jolt the viewer into a different state of awareness about the natural environment, and our relationship to it.
“In our modern age, it’s hard to know where the wired world ends and the wild one begins,” says co-creator Leanne Allison, half the filmmaking team behind the Gemini-winning Being Caribou.
“This whole thing started with a huge collection of trail photographs gathered in Banff National Park. These were images that were not framed by people. They were sort of nature uninterrupted.”
Essentially low-resolution stills gathered from motion-activated cameras in the wild, the images showed a variety of animals simply doing what they do, from crows and eagles to foxes and bears.
The bear was the central motivator for Allison, because she and her husband, Karsten Heuer, a park ranger in Banff, had been following her moves for years.
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Checkout the National Film Board’s Interactive Website here.
UBC LIbrary Catalogue NFB Screening Room access here.