Here's a look at just two of those films, which hint at the range and richness of what the festival has to offer.
The River is about the Colorado River and the roughly 40 million people who use it. The situation is no secret. The Colorado River doesn’t carry enough water for the demands we human beings put upon it, and not enough of us 40 million seem willing to face that fact.
Director Mara Gasbarro Tasker travels the course of the river from Colorado to Southern California, talking to people, showing their ranches and homes -- and the spectacular landscapes of the American Southwest – while trying to gain purchase on this intractable dilemma.
Every person the film encounters has a story to tell about their connection to the river – their family has run this ranch for three generations; or this farm, which has fed people across America for a hundred years.
People from the Southern Ute and Navajo tribes count their intimacy with the Colorado River in thousands of years. Everyone has a claim on the river’s water – and they are not frivolous claims – and everyone considers their claim paramount. Few concede that no matter how powerful their belief, the amount of water coming down the Colorado River ain’t enough.
But the film shows cracks in the wall of demands. A few people admit they have to change; a farmer starts more efficient irrigation; a retired Arizona developer replaces his lawn with desert plants. But the images of swimming pools, huge farm irrigation systems and golf courses persist.
Like The River, Nuisance Bear by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman presents utterly gorgeous landscapes. It’s set in the Arctic, with vast white expanses, the haunting blue tinge to the light, and a pink rim along the horizon.
The story is less ethereal – at least on the surface. The film’s about polar bears, in particular, bears that hang around towns like Churchill on the western shore of Hudson Bay. Bears wander the streets, get into people’s homes and raid the town dumps. Sometimes they attack people and even kill them.
So animal control folks chase the bears, with a range of vehicles, even helicopters, and fire shells to scare them off. But the movie warns the audience not to get distracted by what’s obvious. An old Inuit man says, “It may seem like a simple story. But no story is ever simple.”
Loads of tourists flock around the area, hoping to see polar bears that in telephoto lenses look cuddly, like fabulous teddy bears. Companies bus around the eager tourists armed with cameras and phones.
They’re told to raise their arms over their heads to look like caribou – but, of course, the Inuit hunt and eat caribou, which adds some irony to the not simple story.
And the story expands. Hungry bears wander the land later than they used to because of climate change. They can’t go out on the ice to hunt seals because the ice forms later than it did.
Then comes the question of the existence of the town itself, which is relatively recent – the Inuit were forced to move into towns by white Canadians. And that leads to the question of Inuit children sent to schools to learn English and unlearn their own language, which makes the speaking of this old Inuit man precious. And soon it’s clear that this story of a single nuisance bear, is a story about us.
Pick a film in the festival that’s off your beaten track. Take a chance. You might be surprised.
