The Best of Environmental Film Comes to Ottawa

Every few weeks, my daughter Cassie insists we visit the Canadian Museum of Nature here in Ottawa -- what she calls "the dinosaur museum" -- so that she can visit the triceratops models and feed them her lunch. The museum staff is very accommodating toward these wholly unsanctioned fantasy mealtimes.

This week, I have another good reason to visit the museum, and it has nothing to do with giant lizards. From April 5-8 the Canadian Museum of Nature will present some of the best environmental documentaries from Toronto's Planet in Focus Film Festival.

The Ottawa screenings are part of a national tour with stops at other natural history museums in several Canadian cities, including Whitehorse, Halifax and Victoria. I've looked at the line-up; it's a mix of the fear-inducing and the awe-inspiring. There are award-winning films about the coming crisis in drinking water, the dire effects of a mass bee hive collapse, and the alarming effects of global warming. But there is also an uplifting story about indigenous peoples saving the Yukon River, another about former enemies joining forces to save the hawksbill turtle, and a fascinating underwater journey into Alaska's inside passage.

Nature Canada joined famed author and nature advocate Margaret Atwood on the red carpet at the 2010 Planet in Focus festival for the premiere of the Ron Mann film In the Wake of the Flood, a documentary about Atwood's worldwide Year of the Flood book tour. Since Atwood helped to raise funds and awareness about Nature Canada on the tour, we make a small appearance in the film.

(Ron Mann's film isn't on the docket for this travelling film fest -- but you can still buy the DVD!)

Check out the museum's web site for film schedules and other details, or the Planet in Focus site for more info about screenings in other cities.

Lights, Camera, Action! Nature Canada joins Margaret Atwood on the Red Carpet

Margaret Atwood with a Nature Canada
bookmark during the Year of the Flood tour

The countdown is on to Canada's largest environmental film festival! The worlds of birders, movie celebs and environmentalists will collide as Planet in Focus kicks off this year with the Ron Mann film In the Wake of the Flood, a documentary about author Margaret Atwood's worldwide Year of the Flood book tour – and Nature Canada makes a small appearance.

Nature Canada joined Atwood for four stops on the Canadian leg of her tour, which were also fundraisers and awareness raising events for Nature Canada. Donations made at performances in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver went directly to support conservation work at Important Bird Areas throughout Canada.

Mann, director of Comic Book Confidential and Go Further, chronicled Atwood's journey from Edinburgh to London to New York and across Canada. Former Nature Canada board member, Anne Murray, has a fleeting glimpse at fame as she was filmed taking Atwood birdwatching along Vancouver's coast!

Nature Canada Executive Director Ian Davidson will brave the paparazzi to attend the premiere, as well as a special Nature Canada fundraising reception at which Atwood and her partner Graeme Gibson will receive Planet in Focus' Canadian Eco Hero Award.

Atwood and Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International, a global alliance of conservation organizations working together for the world's birds and people. As BirdLife in Canada, Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada deliver the Important Bird Areas Program, which aims to identify, conserve and monitor a network of sites that provides essential habitat for bird populations.

On the tour, and in the film, Atwood cited bird conservation as a cause dear to her heart, and the members of BirdLife International as effective protectors of birds and their habitat.

The 11th Annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival opens on Wednesday, October 13. The Opening Night screening of In the Wake of the Flood will also include a musical performance of passages from the novel. Tickets are on sale now!

Not in the Toronto area? A second Nature Canada fundraising event to promote the DVD release of the film is planned for December 2, so mark your calendars and we will keep you posted with details in the coming weeks.