Panels are being formed on Werner Herzog’s film about Timothy Treadwell, which uses amateur footage documenting life with Alaskan grizzlies. Herzog’s editing and portrayal of Treadwell raise many questions that need to be explored. How do we evaluate the work of a feature film director editing footage of someone else’s experience in the wilderness? How should we respond to the mission of someone who intrudes into that wilderness? Can the wilderness be protected when changed by the presence of the protector/filmmaker? What is the role of a documentarian in the wilderness? Can a documentary filmmaker truly be a friend to the environment or the ecosystem being filmed?

Several participants have already accepted the challenge to deal with this film that aired multiple times on the Discovery channel. The promotional rhetoric shifted from a man who lived with bears to a “grizzly activist.” What does the change in descriptive language suggest about the film? What is the “rhetoric” of nature film (visual and verbal)? Grizzly Man is but one thread to be unraveled in the panels on Nature and the Environment in Documentary Film and Television at the Film & History 2006 conference. See details below and go to www.filmandhistory.org for complete conference updates. Note that in addition to panels and plenary sessions there are also daily film screenings.

2006 Film & History Conference—“The Documentary Tradition”
8-12 November 2006
Dolce Conference Center – Dallas, TX

Deadline: July 20, 2006

AREA: Nature and the Environment in Film and Television Documentaries

Early filmmakers often traveled the globe to introduce audiences to views of far away places. Niagara Falls and scenes of the Holy Land shared the screen with the dancing Carmencita. Later, the filmic exploration of the natural world added support to the argument that movies were educational tools.

Walt Disney, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and Carl Sagan took audiences into new natural worlds.

The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and PBS continue the tradition of nature film. NASA, too, has a television channel. Audiences continue to share a fascination for the natural world, as witnessed by the success of The March of the Penguins (2005). Why?

Environmentalist and preservationist groups use the power of film and television to disseminate information, create public awareness, and activate change. And there is a political aspect; witness the work of Al Gore and Robert Kennedy Jr.

Presentations are invited on individual documentaries, television programming, or on particular directors and cinematographers. A survey of movies analyzing our cultural fascination and identification with nature films and the ways in which nature and the environment are filmed would be welcomed.

Panel proposals, for up to four presenters, are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal.

Deadline: July 20, 2006

Send a 200-word proposal to:
Deborah Carmichael
Department of English
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater OK 74078

Email: debcar6569@aol.com
Phone/fax: 405.372.1883