Nuisance Bear

I just became aware of this film because James Frystack, a very talented wildlife cinematographer, posted about it on LinkedIn. I believe the guys who made have just won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
I watched the film and found myself watching with mixed emotions, it’s a beautiful film and I suspect the fact I found myself with mixed emotions is the reason it won. I’m no Roger Deakin but there were some shots that had me scratching my head I’ll be honest, but that aside what stirred in me more was the uneasy feeling that this Bear was just trying to survive and all these humans were out there with their expensive camera gear filming it, the bear also being chased away by the chopper made the my stomach acid rise.

Of course Children celebrating Halloween and then getting eaten by a Polar Bear is not a good look either and as a Father I sympathise with that aspect of it, which puts us (me) in a tricky dilemma really.

But one shot really stood out to me and it was a nighttime shot where the bear approaches what I guess is a refuse station and abandoned outside is some kind of photocopying machine that has been discarded. Inside of me I couldn’t help thinking that the reason this particular bear has found itself coming so close to humans is because the Sea Ice has melted and as a result of this it has to swim further and further to get to it’s primary source of food which are seals, but this wouldn’t happen if we humans didn’t fill up our World with plastic junk and destroy our environment.

A screen grab from the film of the Polar Bear looking for food at the local refuse station

Now those that know me also know that I drive a stinking great big, diesel sucking beast of a 4WD, and so it could be said that I’m being somewhat hypocritical, and that’s your opinion. In fairness my truck is not a Chelsea tractor, I use it to get me places to film and photograph as well on the farm.

The film is a beautiful film and well worth a watch and my sincere congratulations to all involved.

The documentary ends a little abruptly but reading the comments it seems that people who are in the know said the bears get held in a containment facility with minimal human contact until they can be located by chopper back out onto Sea Ice. I can’t comment on that as I don’t have the info, but I would like to think that is the case.

I’m happy to hear peoples comments about this as there was recently another film made about the ethics of Wildlife filmmaking which stirred some emotions in in another way. lol