/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/Nature Gets The Spotlight At Wildlife Film Festival

By Neena Bhandari Reprint | | Print |

Neena Bhandari

MISSOULA, Montana, Apr 18 2000 (IPS) - About 10,000 film-makers, broadcasters and conservationists from across different continents are here to participate in the world’s oldest festival of wildlife and natural history films.

The 23rd International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF) opened on Apr. 15 with 1,000 people carrying puppets depicting animals and their habitat walking down Higgins Avenue in downtown Missoula.

Dressed as bats, bears, sharks, butterflies, penguins and even trees, they crawled, walked and “swam” through the streets. “The Wildwalk parade strikes an intimate chord between humans and the animal,” observes Festival Director Jennifer Thomas.

As many as 254 films have entered the festival this year in the 14 categories ranging from environmental issues and news story, amateur and independent production to Television programme and Television series.

>From ‘Troubled Waters’ highlighting the options of tearing down four federal dams in Washington state to save the fish to ‘Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry’ combining new scientific findings to offer a glimpse into the emotions of animals, viewers have been enthralled with some really good films.

BBC’s Television series ‘Living Britain’ has also been much acclaimed for its sheer perfection.

” ‘Millennium Oak’, ‘Spiders from Mars’ and ‘Supernatural’ have showed how techniques have progressed and what computers and visual effects can do. Indeed, an innovative step ahead in natural history films,” says Carlye, a student of mass communications at the University of Montana.

Tiny little video cameras are able to get into burrows, dens and pouches and show us aspects of animal behaviour we have never seen before. In the past few years there has been a real leap in this kind of access to a world that has existed all along, but people have never seen before.

BBC Natural History Unit’s Patrick Morris and Neil Nightingale’s ‘Hokkaido — Garden of the Gods’ has been adjudged the Best of the Festival as it illustrated superior strength in all areas.

“The most stunning, spectacular, superb natural history film I’ve seen in a long time”, says Antonio Casado from Venezuela, who has been a documentary film producer for the past 14 years, adding, “but sadly, the recent volcanic eruption in the area has caused much damage to life on the island”.

Besides giving prizes for being best in every category the festival also hands out merit awards similar to the Oscars. These awards recognise the basic filmmaking skills like editing, music, photography, scientific content, conservation message and investigative journalism.

“That way a film with fantastic photography but trite content might win an award for photography,” says IWFF Executive Director Amy Hetzler. The IWFF is one of the three festivals of its kind in the world. The other two – Wildscreen in Bristol (UK) and Jackson Hole in Wyoming (USA) are held alternate years.

“The latter two are great events too, but have a far more tense, businesslike edge to them and there’s less time to just talk about filmmaking and discuss the ideas, passions and motivations behind making good films,” says Timm Scotts, an ecologist and independent producer from the United States.

The IWFF was started in 1978 by biologist, Dr Charles Jonkel, reacting to biologically inaccurate filmmaking. He saw wildlife films that tended to revolve around the personality of the film’s host and often embellished or overlooked the facts. Traits such as ferocity or ‘cuteness’ of the animals were amplified. There was no peer review on films.

“Today’s market allows someone who is neither a biologist nor filmmaker to think that they are both. No matter how lousy the film is they make money and it encourages them to make another one”, says Jonkel, adding, “biology, science and humanities are changing as quickly as television, art and the environment. We need to stay ahead of the game.”

The festival is an eight-day celebration of the science, art and finesse of wildlife filmmaking. It seeks to nurture both credibility and excellence in an industry that’s falling even more under the influence of cable TV, corporate sponsorships, big money and easy images.

“The growing interest in the world we live and share with other creatures has made the festival grow stronger each year. There is a vacuum and nature abhors a vacuum. In providing education and entertainment about nature, the festival fills that empty space,” says IWFF board member and Big Sky brewer Brad Robinson.

Although generously sponsored by local businesses and individuals, the IWFF is not sponsored by any one large corporation or entity. As its Executive Director remarks, “our roots are firmly established in conservation and education. It will never be about getting and making money, but appreciating nature through films.”

In a recent survey conducted by Wildscreen, more than two-thirds of the film-makers questioned said they had put their lives seriously at risk twice or more while shooting footage for the wildlife documentaries which top TV ratings all around the world.

The dangers included attacks by animals, falls and accidents or getting caught up in local wars or civil unrest. But despite the threats, fewer than eight percent of the sample favoured the safer option of using habituated or captive animals in productions.

“There will always be some natural history filmmakers who love the kill, the sex, high action drama and will package things around that. But there are a growing number of people seeking authentic accurate films. We emphasise ethical filmmaking. You don’t manipulate animals. You don’t stake out prey to get a predation shot. You don’t mess around with nests and disturb life. You don’t fake,” adds Hetzler.

Nestling amidst the snow-capped Rocky mountains, Missoula is ideal for the festival as it has an abundance of wild animals and birds. Also, being a college town, Missoula is a place where conservationists of many stripes congregate.

Children are an important part of the festival. As Lisa Kerscher and Debbie Fassnacht of the IWFF’s Education Outreach Team say, ” many school children are waiting to attend the four-hour workshop on Saturday, which will introduce them to the world of wildlife film making. The IWFF now has a computer database which gives information on all the films ever entered in the festival. This is of great help to students and teachers”.

‘Underwing’, a film about birds of prey native to the Rocky Mountain region produced by 10 students aged between 10 and 12 has been rated as the best in the School Group Category this year. It was the result of the kids’ wildlife video-making course.

The weeklong (April 15-22) film festival includes public screening of the films, a workshop in designing masks, puppets and costumes, display of original wildlife art produced by children, a wildlife fashion show and two courses, one before and the other after the festival, in wildlife film and television and video programme making by Jeffery Boswall, the longest serving producer of the BBC Natural History Unit.