Hummingbird rehabilitation, people living among gorgeous habitat occupied by lynx and wolves, beautiful footage and potential solutions to crucial problems.
Those are some of the sights and ideas on offer this year at the International Wildlife Film Festival, which runs from April 20-25.
“We're looking for beautiful footage, but also storytelling that could be relatable, and could touch people, whoever they are, and kids and adults alike,” said Lívia Campos de Menezes, guest programmer.
A native of Brazil and film festival veteran, she just spent three years with the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, California. The world of wildlife film is small, and she knew of IWFF and kept an eye on its selections.
Now in its 47th year, the festival was founded in 1977 by Chuck Jonkel, the renowned University of Montana bear biologist, with an eye toward curating movies that were scientifically accurate and could reach audiences of all ages.
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This year, they received around 400 submissions that were vetted by a large pool, including scientists, to ensure accuracy. The final three judges are all filmmakers.
Other traits they sought this year included films with uplifting stories.
“We were looking for stories that could inspire us to do the necessary changes to make sure that the planet thrives,” she said.
Whether the movies are addressing climate change or wildfires, they include people, communities and organizations, regardless of size, that are pursuing solutions so that viewers leave with ideas and motivation rather than simply be overwhelmed by the scale of problems.
The other criteria include beautiful cinematography that will draw people in (and look great on a big screen) paired with strong narratives.
"If you don't have good storytelling, you won't captivate your audience" regardless of the footage, she said.
For parents, there are content warnings on each movie’s listings online regarding bits of profanity, footage of animal injuries, etc.
If you go
The festival runs from April 20-25 at the Roxy Theater. Go to wildlifefilms.org.
WildWalk Parade: Saturday, April 20. Starts at 11 a.m. Staging starts at 10:30 a.m. for participants. Followed by WildFest at the XXXXs at 11:30 with food trucks, music and more.
Best-of screenings: Saturday, April 27.
Virtual festival: The online version (which does not include all the movies) runs on Eventive from April 28-May 3.
Bison movies
Of local note, there are three movies related to bison this year. Two of these played at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, so there’s a second chance to catch them.
“Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya,” was directed by siblings Ivy and Ivan MacDonald with Daniel Glick and includes narration by Lily Gladstone. It looks at the restoration of the herd on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Colin Ruggiero’s “A Buffalo Story” looks at the species and related issues from the perspective of a tribal buffalo manager on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
A film that hasn’t been seen here yet, “Rebirth of the Range,” will screen twice. Directors Kira Kay and Jason Maloney focus on the return of the Bison Range to the management of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. (It plays on Tuesday, April 23, in the University Center Theater, and then again on Wednesday, April 24, at the Roxy).
Award winners
The award winners were set to go out this week and Campos de Menezes shared some highlights ahead of the festival’s official start on Saturday.
New Vision Award: 'Lynx Man'
Director Juha Suonpää’s feature has a protagonist who’s passionate about the endangered cats, so much so that it’s been described as a Finnish version of “Grizzly Man.” (Presumably with a happier ending.) Campos de Menezes said the award goes to a film that “presents a subject matter in more artistic and experimental ways to surprise the audience.”
The film employs a dark, primal tone while addressing wildlife conservation, she said.
Sustainable Planet Award: 'A Call from the Wild'
This Norwegian movie won an award for its personal angle. After a quarter-century of professional photography, Asgeir Helgestad visits key sites in his home country to explain the effects of human development and climate change on species and their environment. While much is specific to Norway, the first-person perspective will likely invite viewers to some introspection.
“You can relate to things that you're experiencing in your own community in your own homelands,” Campos de Menezes said.
Living with Wildlife Award: A tie
This category had a tie between two films.
One is the festival’s Saturday opening night movie, “Among the Wolves.” Directors Tanguy Dumortier and Olivier Larrey follow two subjects, a painter and a photographer, who head into an area bridging Finland and Russia to observe the packs.
Campos de Menezes said it’s “one of the most beautiful films I watched this season” for this festival and others, as the filmmakers place viewers right in their habitat.
Director Sally Aitken’s “Every Little Thing” earned great reviews at Sundance earlier this year. Its subject is Terry Masear, a Hollywood resident who has spent more than 15 years rehabilitating hummingbirds who’ve been injured and hatchlings whose mothers have likely died so they can be released into the wild again.
Feature Category: 'Cactus Hotel'
Director Yann Sochaczewski plants viewers in the Sonoran Desert for a look at the variety of insects and animals that benefit from the signature species with “incredible” cinematography, she said.
In the judge’s citations, JinYoung Beissel wrote that it “reminded us that learning is fun, and that we live in a world where fact is oftentimes stranger … and more exciting … than fiction.”
Best Short Short: 'JoJo: A Toad Musical'
One of the especially kid friendly films, this pick is a “very sweet film” about a young man who cares for amphibians in his area affected by fungus, Campos de Menezes said.
Here’s a few films we watched:
‘A Call from the Wild’
Saturday, April 20, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, April 24, 5:15 p.m.
Directed by Asgeir Helgestad
Norwegian (English subtitles)
Wildlife photographer Asgeir Helgestad makes a survey of his home country’s dynamic landscapes, and a plea to protect them in this first-person feature. First, Helgestad revisits photographs from early in his 25-year career and then the locations themselves to see how the species, from puffins to polar bears, are faring.
The dramatic scenes include reindeer seeking refuge from botflies in search of flesh to lay their maggots. As the snowpack that normally protects them becomes scarce, the herds cluster on high mountain rocks.
The high ocean cliffs of Runde only experience a fraction of the migratory birds than in the past, which Helgestad illustrates by contrasting a current trip with historic footage. He films a pair that lay an egg and protect it through to its apparent first flight.
To show the effects of the new industry of kelp trawling on the nearby ocean floor, he drops his cameras into the water.
Montana viewers will see similarities: the once-decimated musk oxen have been restored with herds from Greenland, which has been a source of controversy, not unlike the bison here. As the climate warms, the tree-line climbs higher by a meter a year, potentially changing the mountain landscape. As more “cabin towns” are built in the highlands, migratory routes and land are cut off.
Helgestad alludes to the tensions of renewable energy development, such as whether wild areas should host wind farms (he opposes the tradeoff). An epic waterfall, Mardalfossen, meanwhile, has been tapped for hydroelectric power and only runs two months a year.
While it’s a carefully paced film tied to the seasons, it covers a significant amount of ground, zooming in to include bees and insects along with the more charismatic species. The photography is expectedly beautiful, and the personal lens stays reverent and mournful.
‘Every Little Thing’
Sunday, April 21, 5:15 p.m.
Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Directed by Sally Aitken
Masear, an experienced rehabilitator, fields calls from people who find injured adults or hatchlings of the smallest type of bird in the world, and then takes them in at her “hummingbird ICU.”
Aitken’s feature, with vivid camerawork and artful editing, feels less like a “wildlife film” than a dual character study on both the birds and their caretaker.
She captures slow-motion footage that’s hypnotic — slowed to a speed where you can see how they're able to keep their heads stationary in space while their entire body rotates. They have a “sensational quality,” Masear says, and there’s an element of magical realism to creatures that can spin their wings 50 times per second.
Masear’s personal story is parceled out. She’s an author with multiple degrees who’s eloquent about the birds and the meaning she derives from working with them.
She calls life a “stack of metaphors,” and doesn’t spare her disappointment when she sees an injured bird that humans may have harmed, even inadvertently. The painstaking work of bringing them back to health or maturity includes custom cages and feeders and techniques to help them achieve the rare feat of vertical flight.
Masear’s affectionate but does not pretend these birds, who she names things like “Wasabi” and “Cactus,” are all sweetness and light. While some footage is cute to the point of twee absurdity, such as clips of them decorating their nests with paint chips, she describes how a truly rehabilitated bird needs to be able to fight off attacks from others and compete for food and mates. She’s delighted when one shakes off its dependence and attachment to her and returns to a state of wildness.
Masear, who’s endured her own share of tragedies, triumphs and losses, sees lessons to be drawn from the birds without anthropomorphizing them. They’re always in the moment, and “like humans, damaged birds carry a kind of caution.”