May 23, 2016
Filmmaking That Changes the World
Ace and the Desert Dog
Ace Kvale, a veteran photographer, and Ghengis, a blue heeler “dogger” (that’s canine for “blogger”), live together in the Utah desert. Their backyard: 2 million acres of canyons, redrock cliffs, dry washes, empty landscapes and desert wilderness. For his 60th birthday, Kvale decided to go on a 60-day backpacking trip. Kvale and Genghis are living proof, plodding along to spectacular places only reachable by foot, following the cycles of the season and learning lasting lessons from one another. Namely: Slow down, spend as much time with your best friends as possible and don’t forget to play.
62 Years
Mark Twain said, “Whiskey is for drinking — water is for fighting.” More than half a century after David Brower, environmentalist and the Sierra Club’s first executive director, traveled down northwest Colorado’s Yampa River with his sons, Twain’s observation still rings true. The same year of the river trip, 1952, Brower led the successful fight against two proposed dams in Dinosaur National Monument by raising awareness and creating a constituency of conservationists. 62 Years follows Brower’s son, Ken, as he recreates the river trip from his childhood and reflects on his father’s legacy, as well as the future of the drought-plagued American West.
Mile 19
Since the inception of the Los Angeles marathon in 1986, 178 runners have completed every race. They’re called “Legacy Runners.” Johnnie Jameson is a member of this special group, but he’s not an elite runner: He’s a working man, a postal employee. But what he lacks in speed, he makes up in creativity. He ran his first marathon backward, finishing in last place. He dribbled a basketball the next year. Each race, wearing his signature Payless shoes, he stops and talks and takes his sweet time. And over the years, the marathon has become a form of therapy for Jameson, who was scarred deeply from serving as an infantryman in Vietnam. This poignant film from Vincent DeLuca conveys a lifetime of lessons in 10 short minutes, spinning a powerful story of resilience, humor and healing.
Elk River
For many of the elk herds that summer in Yellowstone National Park, home is outside the protected park boundaries the rest of the year, as far as 70 miles away. Scientist Arthur Middleton joins photographer Joe Riis, artist James Prosek and filmmaker Jenny Nichols in this documentary that captures the migration of elk in the Yellowstone area. Mirroring a similar expedition undertaken in 1871 that fused science and the arts, this modern band of explorers trek from Wyoming’s rangeland through snowy mountain passes and treacherous river crossings to the rugged beauty of Yellowstone’s high-alpine meadows. Along the way, they meet backcountry guides and cattle ranchers whose lives are intricately tied with the fate of the elk and other migratory species that call the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem home.