Wildlife Film Weekend Oct. 13th, 2006

Past Event ....... October 13th, 2006 — 3:00 pm

Friday, Oct. 13, 7-9:45 p.m. in Callahan Hall, opening night of LPL’s Wildlife Film Weekend, featuring a selection of recent award-winning documentaries drawn from the roster of the International Wildlife Film Festival of Missoula, Montana, including the Maine-made short Project Puffin. The program for Friday is:

7:00 pm Spirit Mandala
7:15 Tales of the Mississippi River Rat
8:20 Project Puffin
8:40 Ten Days to Paint the Forest

Running times and descriptions of the films:

Spirit Mandala (5 minutes)

Producer: Odile Rodriguez de la Fuente
Music: Tulku “Life Force”
Awards: Finalist

A fascinating look at the perplexing similarities between human beings and animals. Without the need for narration, this program reveals with striking clarity the common roots we all share. Behavioral patterns, physical characteristics, and even emotions regarded as solely human are also displayed across a wide canvas of species with whom we share the planet Earth, and ultimately our future. Spirit Mandala is a wordless cry for self-reflection, a message that highlights the unspoken wonder of life, a reminder of where we came from and where we might be headed.

Tales of the Mississippi River Rat (50 minutes) – 2005

Mississippi River Rat PromoProducer: Andrew Graham-Brown
Executive Producers: Maureen Lemire (Discovery) & Tim Martin (BBC)
Awards: Merit Award for Conservation Message; Best TV Program

2nd Place and Merit Award for Editing
Seen and told through the eyes of Kenny Salwey, an old-time hunter and trapper, this intimate film explores the Upper Mississippi river, its backwaters, and the surrounding hill country. Kenny has lived most of his life “a stone’s throw from the water’s edge” in a traditional oak log cabin built with his own hands. With no electricity and only a wood-burning stove to take the chill off bitter-cold winter nights, it’s straight out of a bygone era. Kenny reveals a world of spirituality and seasonal change. He is our guide to the fascinating plants and animals that share the forests, swamps, and river. In his rich, storytelling voice he casts a unique light on the awe-inspiring natural wonders of the Upper Mississippi.

Project Puffin (20 minutes)

Project Puffin PromoProducer: Dan Breton – Ganglion Films
Awards: Best of Category – Non-Broadcast
This inspiring true story tells how a young biologist with a dream sparked the Atlantic Puffins’ comeback in the Gulf of Maine, and helped to make a world a better place.

Ten Days to Paint the Forest (53 minutes) – 2006

Executive Producers: Richard & Julia Kemp
Awards: Finalist & Merit Award: Integration of Science & Art

An international group of artists are in Peru & Ecuador to support Chaparri Reserve in the rare dry forest of Tumbesia which is one of the world’s three richest areas of biodiversity. See how they do it: from the moment they spot a bird to the last stroke of the brush. Watch them draw and paint, and listen as they explain what motivates them and what their feelings are for the forest and its creatures. Through their eyes we learn what makes Tumbesia unique: from the endemic White-winged Guan and Amazilia Hummingbird, to the endangered Spectacled Bear. Travel with them and experience this fascinating but little known region of South America from the Pacific surf through the Sechuran desert to the cactus dry forest and the cloud forest of the Andes.

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