29 mars 2006
Controversial statements
I have been looking for some reactions to the film, controversial at best, here is "la creme de la creme":
- From America, left wing
- From America, right wing
- Blog post by average you and me
Grizzly Man
AT LAST I saw that documentary. I heard of it for the first time in Alaska and it took me nearly 6 months to be able to get to a cinema. P.S. They only showed it today in groningen so we had one shot. My impressions are mingled with awe at the landscape, my heart went litterrally numb as I watched it, recalls of my stay last summer, and an aching that I cannot explain. Alaska seems in my case to have hit a very sensitive spot, right in the middle of my chest (ah it's called a heart right), on the way home the city landscape was filled with snowy capped mountains and tundra imprinted on my retina. I don't love this film but it's controversial side is evident, even more after that conference I attended alongside Nick jans, a writer, who published the grizzly maze (See post in October). Why does it fascinates me I have no idea. Why could I speak about it for hours, even write about it for hours because it is a mystery. The producer tried to explain timothy's death through his footages but doesn't he put forward his own beleifs more than the truth? His judgement? It also brings into the light the controversy of documentary filmmaking. What is true documentary shooting?? according to you? what would you classify a REAL doc?
04 octobre 2005
Air
Kenai Peninsula going aerial...My flight in a small aircraft last week in pics...
Glacial waters
Kenai River meanders
Skilak Lake
Kenai River
Exit Glacier
01 octobre 2005
Grizzly maze-2
What is all this fuss about?
- First and foremost when I heard this story for the first time I was dismayed and in awe at the impact it was having in the media.The hot talks it generated amongst the local community here in Solodtna was on a scale of 9 on the richter scale. Gossip and more was intertwinned in those talks and underneath layed a deep concern for their safety and judgement facing such an "irresponsible action". This incident took place 2 years ago and the locals are still talking about it. It has become a myth and more..
Interestingly enough wildlife activists started the charges in the headlines and newspaper: “Bear was his life, he was their lunch”. Greenpeace and other groups were united against him
Where did this incident took place?
Article from Outside magazine by Doug Peacok "ON OCTOBER 6, Willy Fulton eased his Beaver floatplane down into Alaska's Katmai National Park and remote Kaflia Bay, a broad mosaic of ocean beach, braided waterways, dense thickets of alder, and sedge fields yellowing in the autumn chill. His plan was to pick up his friends Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, California, who spent each summer living among the many brown bears—as coastal Alaska's large grizzlies are known—that congregate in this salmon-heavy wilderness at the base of the Alaska Peninsula."
What happend to Timothy Treadwell?
- Timothy and his girlfriend Amie got mold by a bear and eaten.The attack took place at 1:56pm on October the 5th and not as the Grizzli man implies in the middle of the night.Bear 141 ate them; the rangers found parts of their bodies inside his stomach and are still haunted by what they saw. “Did he kill them? “ is still a piping hot question
Bear 141 was an old bear, 28 years of age, tattoed inside his lip and tagged. Tim had taken pictures and footage of him and nicknamed him Mr. Vicious, which was unusual as the most common names he gave to bears was Mr.Chocolate, cuddle etc… Bear 141 had a dangling lip, ears spread weird and had a growth near the eye. He was reknown as being intolerant of people and to stare a lot.
The second bear that was shot on site was nicknamed baby leatherman by Tim and was one of his most tamed bear as he could pet him. Nick believes that baby leatherman got shot most likely not because he killed Tim and Amy but because his curiosity got the best of him.
What was it with Amie Huguenard?
Amy met him 7 years before. She was from California, tough and loving the outdoor. Tim didn't seem capable of commitment, throughout the summer he shot a documentary with a scenarist and not once did he mention Amy. He would brag about being non-attached. Nevertheless, Amy had decided to move with him for good. Throughout the summer they argued lots. Amy wanted to go home and they left the camp but they couldn't get a flight. As a result they both accordingly decided to go back to camp, it even seemed to be Amy's suggestion.
Timothy as of this time was known to be happy. Everything in his life was heading the right direction. he had a contract with Disney, documentaries running and had at last agreed to share all his information with science.
What about the footage and the audio tape from their death?
The audio tape was sized by Jewel Palovack and is a big mystery.Not many have even listened to it. Amy turned on the camera and the first sound we hear is Tim shouting: “Come on here I am being killed out here” then the sound of the tent being zipped as he retreats inside it and Amy’s voice answering back: “Play dead”. Why did she turn it on? Was it a habit as they had been filming for weeks? Did she know that they had no chance and reached out for the last piece of civilisation available to her?
Why the silly names to bears?
Tim had always kept a childlike attitude. He wanted to demystify bears and spent most of his times and energy traveling to elementary schools to teach kids. He wouldn’t get paid but it was his passion to share his awareness with kids.
He grew up seeing bears as nasty and later realized that they are completely different from what people believe and so he decided to teach bear safety and information. Tim would describe bears as puzzled and goofy teddy bears. There was always a bit of truth and the opposite in whatever he said.
A bit more Bear Biology
The offensive/defensive tactic of bear is good. They pretend to leave and then return!!! Simple but machiavelous. Bear Biologist said that if a large bear get you, you should die quicker but it isn’t always true.
Bear switches of to predatory mode as bear drags you off and this is when one should not discount the effectiveness of fighting back!!! A saying is that you should play dead, Gary Sheldon, Canadian expert on bears, would reply to that: “ You can lie down on the ground not me!!”
In reality it is the bear in our minds that get us. Nick explained that he had been very close to bear and never been attacked even when a bear walked right passed him and that he feels safer around them then around lose dogs
The bear information the average person has access to is very simplified. Said that the only way to know how to react facing a bear is by observing them and watching footages. To sum up you are taught that a BLACK bear can climb trees and that if he attcks you, you should fight back. Black bear are smaller in size. When it comes down to BROWN bear or GRIZZLY, same species different names, you should play dead but if he is predatory fight back too even if your chances of survival are very slim.
How did his death affect the people of Alaska and others?
- What killed him was love, intense passion from what he cherished the most and in death he becomes a lighting rod. His death reflects the extent to which we see our own thoughts and opinions. However, in death he can also be seen as a giant pinata. Aslakan are enraged at him or grieved, noone his neutral on this matter.What sort of man would do that? A fool, a madman, as some said and I shall quote themfrom Nick's book: "If tim doesn't prove that dope can fry your brain than what does it take?" or as a man Nick interviewed did, swapping his name throughout an entire conversation to "steaming grizzly shit" or as a lady in Kodiak started shouting during one of Nick’s readings: “Tim was disrespectful about the bears, they were not HIS bears..”
- A shaman might have understood his actions perfectly whereas ruled by rational thoughts it's easy for us to judge him in our views, through pure facts, denying the magic of the bear.
In the maze each questions dobble past another and so does it when life meets death..
For more articles with precise info, written in an elegant style and good english go there or there
29 septembre 2005
Grizzly Maze from Nick Jans-1
I come back from a book reading down at one of the coffee/bookstore. Nick Jans was presenting his book grizzly maze.
This book his a true account (not like the so called grizzly man movie which has to be taken with a pinch of salt) of Timothy Treadwell's obsession with bears. He was killed by one of them on the 5th october 2003 while camping out amongst them with no pepper spray or electrical fence.
Timothy was originally from california and had lived with bears for 13 years, living in their maze, the midst of their social and eating ground. His death brough out very strong reactions, where people either grieved or became enraged.
He was attraccted by what bears could be, our relationship with them. Bears have had a mythological influence and lived with us for 15,000 years....
...Midnight I shall report this most controversial and delightful story and what people who knew him said tomorrow...
12 septembre 2005
Hobo Jim or night life of small town Alaska
We just received, straight from London, a guy named Michael, originally from New-Zealand. Mandy drove him down 2 days ago and we went out last night to BJ's to listen to Hobo Jim, a local artist who has been round for years and plays the guitar, sings and makes jokes.
It was his last concert in the area. I got noticed straight away has he asked if anyone in the bar was from France, mmmm... why did I raise my arm? ... he kept dropping french words into country songs, such as "j'en ai marre" etc... I understood that those songs were translated from french canadian, about one or 2. Regardless, it was a very entertaining night where I drunk way too much beer. Parties in England come back to mind. The crowd was a mix of youngsters and elders and I bumped into a girl I had met about 7 weeks earlier, Jenny, (it is a small town), I stayed at her brothers in Homer in July. She was heading to the club called Hooligans and we followed her, we being Michael, myself and Krista.
On the way back I saw an amazing Aurora Borealis. All in shades of white but going across the entire sky, like waves painted by an imaginary hand, shifting from one side and disappearing into nothingness within seconds. I stopped the car and sat on my hood mesmerised. I wished it never ended...
Mushroom identification class
We spent the first half of the day from 9 til 12, collecting mushrooms, and the second half was used to align them up on a long table to classify them. This workshop was organised by us, KWF, and Dominique, a belgium mushroom expert that moved to Alaska 25 years ago. We were so lucky with the weather I was simply ecstatic. It rained cats and dogs non-stop for the 2 previous days and it didn't make it easy for us to find young mushrooms but we managed.
Basically here are the ones that are safe to collect and eat, and not too difficult to identify. Others are really tasty but resemble poisonous ones and I truly couldn't manage to be 100% sure so I will not include them here:
I found some lecinus and made a mushroom risotto last night. This mushroom oxidises very fast and turn black which is unnnerving but it tasted good. I shall go looking for more in the next few days and with luck will find copernicus and puff-balls or even some angel-wings, pleurotus.
Avis aux amateurs de bonne bouffe, allez ceuillir des champignons. La periode ici est bientot finie mais elle vient tout juste de commencer en Europe. Alors, a vos marques, pret, partez....
03 août 2005
Land's End
As I, at last, got a car; in this forsaken country without one you're simply stranded. I drove down towards the southern point of Kenai peninsula: Homer.
Homer is a cosy, 4000 inhabitant town, that is closed down in the winter and a world craze in the summer. Homer spit extends for a few hundred meters and is a stretch of sand surrounded by the pacific ocean and a fjord. It used to be 7 kilometers square larger but sunk down during the earthquake in 1964. As you reach Homer which is on a hill, you get an overview of the spit; if the weather is clear; and of the extent of it's beauty. Pebbles and sand stretches for miles,shades of beige and grey intertwinned in a fight for life and death, and dead logs are stranded like sirens longing for deep waters at the tip.
It is a reminder of Normandy's coastline, when you drive in the bay of Mt-St-Michel. However, you do not reach a medieval castle but a shack of old wooden houses, sitting in a line and surrounded by campervans. Summer is not the right time to appreciate the quiet beauty of this place. I shall come back here in september when all touristus vulgarus are gone.
This is the place where Halibut fishing takes place and I saw some pretty amasing sized specimen, really Size matters!!!!The Spit was a breath of fresh air for me,sea, salt and algae. I miss the sea and I guess I will try to hang out around this little spot in the next 2 months.
Fire Weed
In Alaska, the south part, it seems autumn is already there. For the past 2 weeks it has been raining and temperature have dropped. This is, I have been told, the usual summer weather. Mushrooms are growing all over the forest and smells remind me of Norway in the fall...
The surrounding fields are covered in purply/pink flowers, fire weeds, and it is said that as soon as the tip of the flower blooms we have 6 weeks left before the first frost appears. Mmm I am observing them everyday…Hope they don’t open up too fast…
L'ete disparait doucement, se cache derriere des nuages pluvieux. Je commence a m'y habituer et pour moi c'est un peu comme si l'automne m'avait enveloppe de ses bras roux et humides. La cote entiere entre Ninilchik et Homer, au sud de la peninsule de Kenai, est recouverte de fleurs roses, des herbes de feux, fire weeds, et un vieux dicton raconte que lorsque toutes les fleurs sont completement ouvertes, de bas en hauts, il ne reste plus que 6 semaines avant le premier gel...alors je les observe tout les jours secretement ...et espere que les premiers froids seront tardifs...
